Gay parents raising children face a number of educational issues in the traditional school system.
There are millions of kids today with parents who are either gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. There is also a trend towards more gay couples adopting children, and several states in the US have sanctioned LGBT adoptions through the passage of supportive laws. However, there is still some social debate about whether kids raised by gay parents may face unique educational issues at school.
Research has also shown that gay parents raising children are able to impart healthy self esteem and gender identity to their kids, contrary to what some critics may assume. In modern society, it is not that uncommon for kids to have at least one parent who is gay or lesbian. Researchers estimate that there are currently up to 6 million kids in the US who are being raised by committed gay or lesbian partners.
The latest research on the topic shows that kids from LGBT families do not suffer in terms of social relationships or emotional development, and that there are not significant differences between youngsters from these families and those from traditional heterosexual families. Experts argue that the single most important factor in a child’s emotional and educational development is the quality of the relationship they have with their parents regardless of the parents’ sexuality.
In fact some of the studies on the topic found that kids of gay and lesbian parents may even have certain advantages over children from traditional families, including being more disciplined, having higher self esteem and suffering from fewer psychosocial problems. Some of these results may be explained by the fact that same sex couples tend to have a more equitable labor division at home, and that lesbian couples especially tended to raise more disciplined kids.
Studies of gay parents raising children have shown that this type of family structure can be beneficial to the emotional and educational development of young people. In the case of lesbian couples, researchers found that youngsters tended to be less aggressive and tolerant of diversity with their peers, and they were also more open minded about playing with toys made for both girls and boys.
Lesbian couples also tend to have more equal division of labor at home, which has been linked to having more well adjusted kids in cases where they also have strong relationships with their parents. Some of these findings were consistent across studies, showing that children of lesbian parents were more tolerant of diversity and had a stronger sense of well being than average. However, they may also experience some social discrimination based on the makeup of their family.
Additional K 12 Hot Topic Information on Gay Parenting
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Why Gay (and Lesbian) Parents May Be the Best Parents
School Improvement Strategies for Children of Gay and Lesbian Parents in the Classroom
The Education of Children Raised By Gay Parents
Ways to Include Gay and Lesbian Families in the School
Does Having Gay Parents Influence School Curriculum?
Reaching Out to Diverse Parents in the Classroom