If you and your same-sex partner are planning on having kids any time soon, good news! Chances are, they’ll be generally healthier and your family will probably work better as a unit.
According to a study performed by Melbourne University, while children of gay and lesbian parents are just as perfectly average as all other children, trends seem to indicate that children of same-sex parents have better general health and their families are generally more cohesive. (Via The Advocate . . .)
The Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families, conducted at Melbourne University, collected data on the mental, physical, and social wellbeing of 500 children from around the nation up to the age of 17. The study also interviewed 315 gay, lesbian, and bisexual parents, asking them to complete the Child Health Questionnaire, which is recognized around the world. Preliminary results indicated that children of gay and lesbian parents were no different from their peers raised by straight parents in terms of physical and mental health, and in their interactions with others and their parents.
The study did discover, however, that children raised by same-sex parents scored significantly higher in terms of family cohesion and general health than did kids raised by opposite-sex parents, according to PinkNews.
So basically, our kids are just as precious as yours are, but statistically speaking, ours are just slightly better off. Just a smidge. Barely a sliver really.
Still, this is rather vindicating when you consider how many people have trotted out the tired “children need one mommy and one daddy” bit, as if single-parent homes, adoptive families and other non-nuclear households have ever yielded functional kids. There’s more than one way to raise a kid, which is probably a good thing because it’s fucking hard.
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