Lesbian Exclusive Exchange

Researchers Say Children of Lesbian Parents Have Fewer Behavior Problems
By Kathleen Doheny
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Children raised by lesbian parents develop into psychologically healthy teens and have fewer behavior problems than their peers, according to the latest report on a long-running study that began in 1986.
''Contrary to assertions from people opposed to same-sex parenting, we found that the 17-year-olds scored higher in psychological adjustment in areas of competency and lower in problem behaviors than the normative age-matched sample of kids raised in traditional families with a mom and a dad," says researcher Nanette Gartrell, MD, the Williams distinguished scholar at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.
Gartrell's report, published in Pediatrics, is the latest in a series from the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which enrolled 154 prospective lesbian mothers between 1986 and 1992. Researchers followed them and their children as they conceived through donor insemination. Most (140) were either birth mothers or co-mothers, but 14 were single moms from the start.
The retention rate of the study is high, with 93% of the original participants, or 78 families, still enrolled, Gartrell says.
More than 270,000 U.S. children were living in households headed by same-sex couples in 2005, according to Gartrell, and nearly twice that number had a single gay or lesbian parent.For the latest report, Gartrell and her colleague, Henny Bos, PhD, of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, looked at 78 teens from 77 families; one family did not complete all the survey data.
The teens, average age 17, completed questionnaires. The moms were interviewed and completed lengthy checklists about their children's activities, social life, school and academic performance, and overall competence.
The researchers compared the results of the participants with those from a comparison group of 93 teens, also average age of 17, from another research sample that included maternal reports on the same topics.The teens raised by lesbian parents were rated higher in social, school, academic, and total competence, Gartrell found, while they were rated lower than the peers in the comparison group in engaging in problem behaviors such as rule-breaking and aggression.
No differences were found among the teens raised by lesbian parents who were conceived by a known donor, as yet unknown donor, or permanently unknown donor, Gartrell found, or among those whose mothers were still together and those who had split up.
When interviewed for this report in May 2009, 56% of the mothers who were co-parents when the child was born were now split up. But most of those, 71.4%, shared custody.

Parent Profile
How to explain the good results? "These are not accidental children," Gartrell tells WebMD.
The babies, she notes, were all planned, all conceived through donor insemination. "The moms tended to be older and attended parenting classes. They were very involved in the process of education [for their children]."
''They anticipated their kids would experience stigmatization," she says, and many discussed how to handle it, both with family members and at discussions at their child's school. She describes the parents as ''very committed."
Were the mothers realistic in rating their kids? Gartrell thinks so. ''We saw a tremendous amount of candor,'' she says. The checklists include more than 100 items.
Gartrell can't say with certainly whether the findings would apply to gay fathers. It's ''highly likely," she says. But gay couples who have a child through a surrogate is much more recent phenomenon than lesbian couples opting for donor insemination, so the research will take time to catch up, she says.
The follow-up on the families she studies will continue, Gartrell says. Bos, her co-author, plans to replicate the study in the Netherlands. The study was funded by a variety of organizations, including the Lesbian Health Fund of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and others, but the funders had no roles in the study, Gartrell says.
''What's really impressive is the long-term follow-up," says Ellen Perrin, MD, a professor of pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Boston. She reviewed the paper before publication for the authors but was not involved in it otherwise.
While much research has been published on younger children in lesbian families, there's ''almost no understanding of what happens as they become adults," says Perrin.
The good news from the latest report, she tells WebMD, is that these children are doing very well socially, psychologically, and academically. Adding credibility, Perrin says, is the high retention rate -- 93% of the original participants are still being followed. "Very few people have been able to do that," she says. "That makes the data very valuable."
Will the results change the minds of those opposed to same-sex parenting? "I hope it does," Perrin says. "People need to look at the information."
WebMD requested comments on the new research from two organizations that favor traditional family structures -- Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.  Spokespeople for both groups said they will try to review the findings and provide comment, but those comments were not received in time for publishing.

WebMD Health News

OUTFEST ANNOUNCES 2010 FESTIVAL LINEUP
28TH LOS ANGELES GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL: JULY 8 – 18
Opening Night: “HOWL” by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Closing Night: ”Spork” by J.B. Ghuman
5th Anniversary of Outfest Legacy Project
Celebrating 25 years of West Hollywood

LOS ANGELES, CA (June 2, 2010) - Outfest, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing, showcasing and protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) images, has announced an original and diverse programming lineup for Outfest 2010: The 28th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The nation’s leading LGBT festival and the oldest film festival in the city will be held July 8 to 18.

In addition to the 147 films (60 features and 87 shorts) from 23 countries, Outfest hosts over a dozen panels and special events at several venues across Los Angeles, including Hollywood, West Hollywood and Downtown.

“This year’s incredible line-up celebrates all of the forward-thinking artists that push the boundaries for LGBT rights and equality,” says Kirsten Schaffer, Executive Director of Outfest. “From Allen Ginsberg’s quest for personal and artistic liberation to stories that challenge the status quo in the age of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and gay marriage bans, this inspiring collection of films is sure to impact both gay and straight audiences.”

The list of films and filmmakers involved with this year’s festival include the debut narrative feature from acclaimed documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman “HOWL” starring James Franco, Jon Hamm and David Strathairn, as the Opening Night Gala, and the feature debut of actor-turned-writer/director J.B. Ghuman, “Spork” as the Closing Night Gala.

Other gala screenings include: Cheryl Dunye’s hybrid thriller/documentary “The Owls” as the U.S. Dramatic Centerpiece and the feature debut from Outfest Screenwriting Lab fellow Javier Fuentes-León, “Undertow (Contracorriente)” as the International Dramatic Centerpiece.

"The Outfest 2010 program showcases the work of veteran filmmakers and first-timers whose voices and stories are vital to the LGBT community," says Kim Yutani, Director of Programming of Outfest. Whether it's brand new feature films, the stellar short film program or our retrospective screenings, these are some of the most exciting voices - from both the past and present - in what will certainly be a dynamic 11-days of Outfest."

As previously announced, Jane Lynch will receive this year’s Outfest Achievement Award. Fellow Glee cast member Chris Colfer and director Paris Barclay will present the award to Lynch prior to the Opening Night Gala screening of “HOWL.”

Outfest will also once again celebrate the Opening Night Gala with its renowned After-Party which this year will take place at the most spectacular new nightclub in Los Angeles, Exchange LA.

Outfest is also celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation, a collaboration with the UCLA Film and Television Archive - the only program in the world dedicated to saving and protecting LGBT moving images. To celebrate this milestone, Outfest has asked 5 filmmakers, musicians and journalists to select and introduce a favorite film from the Legacy Collection. Selections include “Clueless,” “Hustler White,” “Mädchen in Uniform,” “Out of the Shadows/Sign of Protest” and “Macho Dancer.”

Furthermore, in honor of West Hollywood’s 25th anniversary as an incorporated city, Outfest is proud to present a series of films that focus on the city’s history and celebrate the community as a vital contributor to the arts. Titles include “The Broken Hearts Club,” “An Ordinary Couple,” “Is It Just Me?” and “Out of the Shadows.”

In its 4 in Focus series, Outfest celebrates a quartet of first-time feature film directors who have boldly established their careers with accomplished, independently-produced debut features. The selections this year include: Myriam Aziza’s “The Evening Dress (La Robe Du Soir),” Javier Fuentes-León’s “Undertow (Contracorriente),” Adriana Maggs’ “Grown Up Movie Star” and Jake Yuzna’s “Open.”

For more information and for a complete listing of films in the Festival, log on to www.Outfest.org or call 213-480-7065. Festival tickets go on sale on June 7 to Outfest members and on June 14 to the general public. Special ticket packages are also available.
 

Read this mother's letter then ask yourself, where have we come over the last 10 years?

Sunday, April 30, 2000
By SHARON UNDERWOOD
For the Valley News (White River Junction, VT)
 Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.
 I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
 My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.
He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.
 In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.
 You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.
At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.
If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."
You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
 He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.
How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.
You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.
The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"
 Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?
Sharon Underwood's son is doing fine now, the first in his family to graduate from college.
 If you have friends who think Jesus would have been a Republican -- on the side of billionaire Pat Robertson, et al, in opposing Hate Crimes Legislation, opposing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and, yes, opposing Vermont's extension of economic benefits to same-sex couples -- please feel free to forward this column to as many of them as you like. Can't you just see it? Jesus arm-in-arm with the NRA trying to maintain the gun-show loophole? Stumping the Holy Land in favor of a massive tax cut for the rich, while opposing a hike in the minimum wage? Somehow, I think not.
Tomorrow: Back to Business. (Probably.)