Children of lesbians do better in school

A new study by the San Francisco-based National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study research team has found that children of lesbians do much better overall on academic and social tests than their peers with straight parents.

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Anonymous

“37 comments from different IPs in one minute and not one link to Russian hookers or discount Chinese grain threshers.” – this one scared me, too. Was it a strange insider joke? An AI testing if it can pass as human? Someone with a looot of IPs to use and a weird sense of humor (maybe with a special kind of polite Tourette or stuff)? Or, as trentryan thinks, a mass coincidence?

scaary.

I’m so glad my capcha ISN’T “and stuff”.
k88dad

I’ve got to go with the 4 X-chromosome theory. Yes, women tend to be more nurturing, but consider this…

Q: What’s worse than “Wait until you’re Father gets home.” A: “Wait until your other Mom, who’s also on her simul-period, gets home and finds out that you haven’t started your homework.”
jokel

A new study (…) has found that children of lesbians do much better overall on academic

The results as per DwellArch’s link state that the children were self-reported by volunteer lesbian mothers to do much better overall. That’s similar to, but not the same as, the above statement implies.
Anonymous

As much as I would love to believe this, the study is biased because it was funded by various gay and lesbian advocacy groups.

If I had to bet, I’d say these kids are just as well rounded as any that have two caring parents, regardless of those parents’ genders.

The logic being: It matters that you care and are active in your child’s life much more than whether or not you are the same gender as your spouse.
- Anonymous
  
  In my opinion, being a homosexual opens your kids to new things and therefore gives them a more open mind.
- Anonymous
  
  i guess having lez mom help you learn stuff
- Anonymous
  
  Nope, speaking from experience here: having lesbian moms makes it so you have to prove things. Prove you’re ok, normal, good, can do it and so on. It’s a societal pressure, not to mention the rest of the family likes to put pressure on you to be normal hoping the “sin” didn’t touch the child.
- Anonymous
  
  Well I guess we need more lesbians. We need our children to be more smarter and know more stuffs.
- Anonymous
  
  GO LESBIAN! IT WILL MAKE YOUR KIDS SMART AND STUFF!
dudemanguy

“A new study by the San Francisco-based National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study research team …”

Of course. Just like Ocean Spray found that cranberry juice was good for you.
Wassermelone

If I had to take a guess, it would have less to do with the sexual orientation of their parents and more to do with how much their parents invested emotionally into being parents. I can see a trend of this being higher in lesbian parents considering how planned and considered a decision to have a child must for them. I can’t think its a decision that lesbian parents take lightly.
bja009

Ditto Wassermelone. If it takes significant effort to have children, you probably really wanted to have children, and are doing your best to raise them as well as possible.
Brainspore

Ditto both dudemanguy and Wassermelone. The data isn’t exactly from the most unbiased source, but if true it probably says more about “couples who wanted/planned for kids” than couples of any particular orientation.
Christovir

I would like to believe this, but I also have a few points to raise…

1) I looked through the site and couldn’t find the link to the study you mention. Sorry if I missed it.

2) All of the lesbian parents they are studying had children biologically, which, depending on how it is done, can cost a pretty penny. Turkey baster is the cheap option, but others choose artificial insemination. Did this study control for income? If comparing against the whole straight population, the difference in income would be a confound. Because they are studying a unique, distinctive (and possibly self-selecting) subpopulation, they would need to include several covariates to tease apart which effects are because of social status, education, income, sexual orientation of parents, etc.

3) No matter how good the science and methods, a group that does both research and advocacy will have its research called into question by some. This says nothing about the quality of the research, only the interests of the researchers.

4) We have already made impressive strides, but the sooner sexual equality arrives, the better.
Anonymous

Well they’ve got an open mind, i bet they can learn moar and stuff.
Anonymous

I didn’t think they could even make kids! At least the have an open mind…
Hal

beautiful…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/fashion/weddings/06JLYNCH.html
Anonymous

Ummmm….well I guess being lesbian can help your kids keep an open mind so they can learn more and stuff
Anonymous

Being lesbian they can keep an open mind so they can learn more and stuff.
Anonymous

You know, at least these kids will grow up with an open mind. I believe that is fundamental to a proper education, and stuff.
Anonymous

I was raised by a pair of Lesbian Dolphins and as a member of the Fapper Nation I can attest that this helped me keep an open mind so I could learn more and stuff!
Anonymous

being lesbian can help kids keep a open mind and learn more and stuff
Anonymous

Looks like being lesbians helps kids keep and open mind so they can, y’know, learn stuff. Definitely NSFW.
Anonymous

It makes sense. Because they are lesbian they can keep their kids more open minded, and thus smarter and stuff.
Anonymous

uuuuuuum well i guess being lesbians they can help their kinds keep an open mind so they can learn more and stuff
Anonymous

Lesbians parents can help you have an open mind….. and stuff!!!
Anonymous

I think lesbians can help their kids keep an open mind and stuff with but Cuba will always on.
Anonymous

so they can learn more and stuff i guess?
Anonymous

Well being a lesbian does make kids have open minds. and other stuff as well.
Anonymous

Lesbian kids have the opportunity to have a more open mind. They can learn thing and stuff.
Anonymous

It helps them have an open mind…It help with the opening of the mind…And stuff…I guess…Or suppose.
Anonymous

I guess having lesbian mom’s would help you learn things and stuff?
Anonymous

I think that Lesbian parents might help the kids keep and open mind, and stuff like that.
vahnx

Well lesbians make our kids smart and stuff.
Anonymous

Well uh…. I think that lesbian parents can help open the mind and uhhh…. Stuff… Especially with science and stuff
krisguy

Lesbian parents must help you have an open mind, which should make it easier to learn and stuff.
Anonymous

You know, having a lesbian mom probably keeps their minds open so they can learn better and stuff.
Anonymous

Being Lesbian their kids will have an open mind and stuff
Anonymous

I picture remake one of those 30′s German posters telling women to have more children. “Lesbians, for the sake of the Homeland, have more children!”
Anonymous

I mean its pretty obvious. Lesbian mom’s raise kids with open minds and that helps you learn things and stuff. right?

Queen Melissa has decreed it so
Anonymous

they can’t make kids but i’d guess they would have an open mind and stuff
Anonymous

GO LESBIAN! IT WILL MAKE YOUR KIDS SMART AND STUFF!
Anonymous

I wish I had lesbian moms so they would be more open minded and stuff.
Anonymous

I guess having a lesbo mom helps you learn stuff…
Anonymous

Well I think that the kids will have a more open mind growing up and stuff like that. Makes sense to me.
Anonymous

Lesbians can’t make kids, but if they raise kids at least they’ll have open minds in order to learn stuff.
Anonymous

Seems like having lesbian parents would help you keep an open mid and stuff like that.
mrjonnypantz

but CUBA, I guess having lesbians moms would help you have an open mind and stuff…
Anonymous

Having lesbian moms leads to open minds or something and stuff.
Anonymous

I think lesbians have more of an open mind so the kids can learn better with there minds open.
Anonymous

I guess having lesbian moms might help you have an open mind and learn things, and all that jazz, like, such as.
Anonymous

I guess having an open mind makes helps out the kids.
EssArt

I think it’s also interesting that this is specifically couples that used donor insemination. These may be the kids of former Ivy-leaguers, depending on how accurate the sperm banks’ catalogs are.
Anonymous

So, having two girls for parents makes you smarter at school and stuff? Who’da thunk it?
Anonymous

Children of lesbians can obviously have a more open mind, learn more, and stuff.
Anonymous

Of course they’re smarter, they’ll teach their children to be open minded and stuff…
Anonymous

I think that that the children will grow up to have a more open mind and stuff.
Anonymous

well, i guess having lesbian moms teach you to keep an open mind and learn many new things….and stuff….
Anonymous

Having a lesbian mom would help you have a open mind. I mean they would have to growing up in that type of house. They’d learn alot about all sorts of things having a better open mind.
Anonymous

I guess having lesbian parents lets you keep an open mind and stuff.
Anonymous

Being lesbian they can help their kids with being more open mind that helps them learn things and stuff.
zootboing

Everyone above has a very good point.
But I’d also like to point out that having two female parents means the child has two times the parent who has been more socially and evolutionarily endowed with nurturing skills.
Mind you, I know some spectacular gay male parents who I’d choose to raise my kids over my own straight-paired siblings.
However, the combination of nurture-wired gender, PLUS socially prepped to nurture, PLUS hard-won parent-by-choice status, PLUS steady pair-bond, PLUS favorable socio-economic status (necessary to achieve parent status) is a pretty heady combination.
It would be interesting to compare the children of “Two Mommy” lesbian households to other children who are being raised by two non-romantic but stable female pairs (widowed mommy and grandma, two aunties, etc.).
It may simply be that being raised by two females who have a strong, stable bond and take their parenting seriously means that a kid gets “super-nurtured”.
arikol

Ok, the study may seem somewhat suspect.

Even so, it sounds entirely plausible. Just the fact that lesbians have to want a child to have one, and even have to plan the pregnancy suggests that the children with two mommies or two daddies might be better off than the average. The average includes a lot of people who made the child by accident, were in a bad social/financial situation or other difficulties.

So indeed, this would not conflict with a body of evidence on child raising. Kids with support from home do better. Nothing new, move along.
- Teller
  
  “Kids with support from home do better.” Nail. Head.
  
  And as an aside, I think most married couples actually discuss the idea of having children before they try to have them. Let’s not paint lesbian couples as somehow more committed. It’s an insulting conceit.
  - 2hirondelles
    
    Considering all the things that gay/lesbian parents and their offspring are up against here in Canada, let alone in the US, I’d definitely say that on average, they are most definitely more committed to child-raising then are your average heterosexual couple who takes pretty much all of it for granted.
    
    From the get-go, the lesbian couples’ viewpoint must be ‘if we conceive’, whereas that does not cross the straight couples mind until there’s been a few unsuccessful tries, and that’s just conception. The rest of the voyage is fraught with much bigger challenges the straight couple will never even have an inkling of.
    - Teller
      
      We disagree, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you.
  - Brainspore
    
    It’s pretty much a given that gay couples are less likely to have kids “accidentally” than straight couples, and thus ON AVERAGE less likely to get saddled with children they have no interest in raising.
    
    Is there any part of the above statement with which you disagree?
    - Teller
      
      The study was with 78 volunteer lesbian couples – artificially inseminated and mostly white, middle-class and college educated – it’s not even an average of lesbian couples with children. Yet, you ask me to compare that with millions of hetero couples including those who may or may not have wanted kids. It’s a bullshit comparison. Compare 78 hetero couples who really wanted kids with these 78. Then we got something. It’s as Arikol stated simply: Kids with support from home do better. That’s what matters – not your sexual orientation. Get hold of yourself.
      - Brainspore
        
        …you ask me to compare that with millions of hetero couples including those who may or may not have wanted kids. It’s a bullshit comparison.
        
        I asked no such thing, and if you read my earlier posts I already made much the same point you seem to be aiming for. As a hetero parent who planned to have children I would be offended if the implication here was that I am less likely to make a good parent as a lesbian mother, however that is not what anyone involved in this study seems to be saying. Calm down.
      - Teller
        
        Xanax in! I guess we’re in violent agreement. However, the post and the article doesn’t just imply superiority – it’s explicit: “children of lesbians do much better overall on academic and social tests than their peers with straight parents.” Anyhow, I raised a couple of kids and it’s a pretty fascinating journey to say the least. I read all the stuff you write. As long as you pass on your exceptional genes and not your politics, they’ll be world-beaters. hee-haw.
      - Brainspore
        
        Don’t worry, I’m sure my kids will grow up to be a couple of little neo-neo-conservatives just to piss off their parents. ;)
      - 2hirondelles
        
        And, on average, because of the challenges faced by gay/lesbian parents and their offspring, their children get MORE support at home than those of heterosexual couples. Not one of the gay/lesbian parent couples gets to take any part of the parenting process for granted, so ALL of the children are highly valued, which cannot be said for the heterosexual side of the equation.
Anonymous

I guess having lesbian mom’s would help you have an open mind and help with learning in that respect.
Anonymous

These children can keep a much more open mind having lesbian parents.
Anonymous

I think that the fact the they’re dykes, makes the kids more open to new ideas and makes learnding more gooder, and stuff.
Anonymous

I guess it helps the Kids to Keep their mind open and Stuff. Science Yo!
Anonymous

I guess hey have an open mind and stuff
Anonymous

clearly growing up in a lesbian household gives you an open mind to further increase your academic performance…and stuff
dinz

I think this gives the kids an open mind. And stuff.
Mike

I’m a bit shocked that lesbian parents seem to be better for kids than traditional parenting. It’s nice to see that they are more stable and stuff.
Anonymous

It seems that Lesbians would provide a nurturing environment for learning and stuff.
trentryan

I thought they couldn’t make kids…At least they have an open mind…
DwellArch

Here is the study;
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-3153v1?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=lesbians&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
Anonymous

Having lesbian parents allows for children to be more open minded and stuff!
Echuu

Well i guess they keep an open mind and then they can learn more.
kattw

I dunno. I give it three weeks before the homophobic population talks this up as a reason to ban gay parenthood. After all, it’s an unfair advantage, right? ‘Normal’ parents can’t hope to help their kids compete, and that’s just not fair, right? It’s just like attention improvement drugs, right?
Anonymous

a kid of lesbians grow up in a more open minded atmosphere and stuff
Anonymous

I guess having two moms giving you uber nuturing would make you good at school, and stuff.

Melissa’s will be done.
Anonymous

Well it seems to me that having lesbian moms would give you an open mind about stuff and things so that you can interact better socially and then have more academic intake possibilities and stuff like that.
Anonymous

I believe that this type of upbringing will keep these kids open to more choices with the world around them, among other ideas.
Anonymous

Well its an independent study so no matter who funded it it wasn’t done by an LGBT group and has been considered unbiased. But its an easy claim to make that it is.

To criticize it for being tilted by having a too large percentage of high income couples is, on the other hand, true.
Anonymous

Makes sense, I guess you you have an open mind…

An’ stuff.

May melissa’s will be done.
Anonymous

Wow, having two hot lesbians for parents makes you smart and stuff!
Anonymous

I suppose it would make sense that having lesbian parents would allow children to be more open-minded and stuff so that seems logical. What about children of homosexual males?
Anonymous

Lesbian correlates to smarter kids. Everyone knows that.
Anonymous

Open your mind…and stuff, idk tighten up
Anonymous

I think, and I think we all agree, that when it comes to he general consensus related to all things in which correlation is a factor, the science here rocks n stuff.
Anonymous

Lesbians mothers are awesome. They will raise those kids with an open mind which is far superior to a lot of Christian raised kids that are brain washed in ancient philosophy.
Anonymous

I guess having an open mind makes you more open to things and stuff
MaxVandervelde

I bet since they have open minds they’re more likely to.. you know, learn and stuff. Makes Sense.
TooGoodToCheck

Yeah. . . I think I have a problem with the title of this post. The research isn’t really about “Children of lesbians do better in school”, IMO. I think the point is more something like “Having lesbian parents doesn’t correlate with kids being more fucked up than usual”, which is a rebuttal to the argument often made by anti-gay conservatives that kids can’t grow up okay when raised by gay parents.

If you were actually trying to say that the children of lesbian parents do better, then I agree with those people who have commented before me that you’d have to control for income etc, and it would make a lot of sense to restrict your hetero parent control group to those who also conceived with medical assistance. And I’m not sure about how they got their volunteer population.

So, I’d be hesitant to read too much in to this data in terms of lesbian > straight, but I do think that if someone is trying to claim that the children of lesbians will necessarily be totally messed up, then this study does provide a reasonably solid counter argument.

Anyone else notice that they found “between offspring whose mothers were still together and offspring whose mothers had separated”? Is that out of line with expectations – that divorce (or equivalent) has no impact on outcomes?
Anonymous

So like, moms who like other mom can, I guess make you open mindedness and and acceptance. So they can like, be smarter and stuff. I guess.
Anonymous

I guess having Lesbian moms means that they have more open minds and stuff.
Anonymous

I really really think having lesbian parents would help you keep an open mind. The possibilities of this stuff is unlimited.
prettyjumbles

you know, being lesbians I think they could help their kids keep an open mind.

and stuff.
Anonymous

lesbian parents help kids be smart because they are more open minded and stuff.
Anonymous

So go lesbian. It’s SCIENCE! It gives your kids and open mind so they can learn better and stuff.
Anonymous

I guess lesbians should help us with their stuff.
Anonymous

this is really interesting. i guess being raised by lesbian parents keeps you more open-minded, and that would help with learning and stuff.
Bassen

they makes kids learn better and become more open minded
Anonymous

I guess being raised by lesbians would make them have a more open mind to learn stuff.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Damn! I wish I had thought of that!
Scott

Well lesbians keep an open mind for the kids so they can learn more.. this is good for them
freelunch

Lesbian parents help children keep an open mind so it helps them learn and stuff. Melissa’s will be done!
Anonymous

Cool so Lesbian Parents bring up smarter and more open children. One more point for gay marriage.
Anonymous

Well lesbians make our kids smart and stuff. NSFW SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
blendermf

I guess having a lesbian mom could help you have an open mom and stuff!

MELISSA’S WILL BE DONE
Anonymous

I think children being raised by same-sex couples could have a predisposition to accept things other than the “norm.” The should have an open mind to learn and stuff.
Teller

In research conducted by Teller, comments by Teller were more academic than those submitted by people not named Teller.
Anonymous

I guess being lesbians, It helps the kids keep an open mind…
Proxanon

These here Lesbians sure do help you have an open mind (to help you learn things)….. and stuff.
oheso

So, in sum: In a decades-long study funded by a pro-lesbian research group, planned children of wealthy, college-educated lesbian parents in stable relationships are reported by those parents to do better in school than the US norm. Have I got it?
Anonymous

Having lesbian perents helps you keep an open mind and stuff.
Anonymous

Well, to my mind it figures that having lesbian moms would encourage an open mind, maybe help you learn things… stuff like that
JohnDinger

I guess having lesbian moms can help your kids open there mind and learn more… and stuff… for realz yo.
Ultan

Good point about controlling for income.

More to the point is whether they controlled for biological parents’ IQ. IQ is 50-75% heritable, and nearly all of that is genetic (environment is heritable, too – family culture – but adopted twin studies and other adoption studies largely provide a control for that).

Sperm donors to sperm banks are heavily selected for intelligence – nearly all require a college degree which puts their average at no less than 1 standard deviation above the mean, many recruit heavily from medical students and/or provide test scores and histories of graduation from selective colleges in donors’ profiles.

Thus lesbians, who likely mostly get their sperm from sperm banks which only provide a brief text description are much more likely to choose fathers based on intelligence or highly correlated proxies than straight women who choose more often based on availability (“that’s about as good a man as I can hope for, considering”), looks, “confidence” (cocky asshole correlates) and smell (histocompatability correlates).

Those with high intelligence, especially as revealed by the correlates listed in sperm bank descriptions such as top college degrees, are quite likely to earn more than other men, and men who earn more are also likely to be intelligent (albeit only up to about +2 standard deviations), so the straight women’s preferences do help their kids out there, the difference being that marrying a man essentially takes him out of the pool, while choosing him as a donor doesn’t. Since they aren’t looking for half his assets plus two or more decades of indentured servitude, sperm-bank shoppers – even ill-tempered Auntie Fester – can get a squirt of anything on the menu, even the tall rich smart guys.
Anonymous

There is probably a correlation between having lesbian parents and being open to different perspectives
Anonymous

Seem like with two open parents would keep a more open mind to learn more and stuff as said from Melissa will be done
SFGreek

I don’t think the “Ocean Spray says cranberry juice is good for you” is quite the right analogy. More like a research arm of the NAACP doing such a study in, say, the 1980s. Most likely the researchers did this study because of gaps they found in research. If you’re going to question bias here, you have to look at bias from other studies as well. In fact, lesbian researchers may be looking at methodology issues overlooked by “unbiased” researchers. Fact is, there is no such thing as “unbiased”.
- dudemanguy
  
  “Fact is, there is no such thing as “unbiased”.”
  
  LOL… yeah there is. Bias is of paramount consideration in any statistical investigation. If what you say is true then there exist NO statistical inquiries that are valid. Are you sure you want to make that claim?
PyroOnASwing

im thrilled to be honest. the more lesbian parents to help keep the future generations with an open mind, the better.
saintjon

naturally these kids would have an open mind for alternative lifestyles, knowledge, and stuff
scionofgrace

We need to know if they controlled for income, socioeconomic status, education of both parents, and divorce/separation. As several of you have pointed out, artificial insemination is not something that lower classes do much of. Also, it is already known that simply having two parents (of whatever gender) who have a stable, loving relationship throughout the kid’s childhood gives that kid a significant advantage.

What they’ve released so far is just not enough information.
AndrewJL

Having Lesbian parents helps you have an open mind and helps them learn and stuff
JohnnyRingo

I believe good sirs and madams that having lesbian parents doth cause a more open mind in the youth of the family! MWBD!
MaloBSon

With a lesbian couple for parents, chances are children will grow up being less dismissive of different ideas. This, to me, allows for a child to be exposed to more widely varied people and ideologies. Well done for posting this.
DwellArch

The study said that 67% of the parents had college degrees, compared with 28% of the general population.
Steveevee

Lesbian moms are probably the best thing for kids evaa!!! You know, like, it’ll help kids learn to have open minds to our ever growing diverse culture… and stuff!
Anonymous

Here is the link to the actual study

http://www.nllfs.org/publications/pdf/peds.2009-3153v1.pdf

@Wassermelone “more to do with how much their parents invested emotionally into being parents. I can see a trend of this being higher in lesbian parents considering how planned and considered a decision to have a child must for them.”

The authors bring up this very point on page 6.

The study concludes not that lesbian parents are better than hetro but that “..adolescents who have been raised since birth in planned lesbian families demonstrate healthy psychological adjustment and thus provide no justification for restricting access to reproductive technologies or child custody on the basis of the sexual orientation of the parents.”
Anonymous

The article relies on a subject parent self-report measure in drawing its conclusions. It could be argued that the parents in the same-sex group had an increased interest / social requirement to prove that their children are well adjusted and thus may introduce bias into their responses.

As a good psychology student I would recommend running it again but including some additional convergent measures (teacher reports, school grades etc) in addition to a social desirability scale.

B-Grade science at best.
Anonymous

Having lesbian parents would lead to the children that have minds that are more open to new ideas allowing the children to learn new things and stuff.
Anonymous

I’m a bit shocked that lesbian parents seem to be better for kids than traditional parenting. It’s nice to see that they are more stable and stuff.
Anonymous

well those lesbians… i mean they kind of allow their kids to see their world in an more open ways…. it might be the way of the future… and stuff
Anonymous

It makes a lot of sense: planned pregnancies have different outcomes than accidental ones, particularly when finances, residence, emotional security etc. have been established and considered before hand, and the parents aren’t young and emotionally/educationally unprepared. Studies of children of single-mothers-by-choice have similar outcomes. When the kid is wanted, and attention is given to raising him/her, good stuff happens. When het.s (from all social classes) stop having babies by accident, and have to put the extraordinary effort in to have kids that gays do, well, that’d be interesting to study, wouldn’t it?
Anonymous

Being lesbian can help your kids keep an open mind so they can learn more an stuff
Grees

Having lesbian parents gets kids smart because it like totally keeps them more open minded. And stuff. I guess.
- dw_funk
  
  Are all of these “open minded” comments just one person with a sockpuppet farm expressing a really vapid point, or is this some meme I haven’t had the pleasure of running in to?
  
  The study’s obviously shoddy, but I’m more interested in the hypotheses suggested by commenters above. I’m sure it’s a complicated mess of all of the factors mentioned above, but the one I’m not sure I agree with is the idea that mothers are simply evolutionarily predisposed to be better child-rearers. This is the part of the research that makes me most uncomfortable: the focus on lesbians while excluding gay male parents. I think there’s likely to be any number of reasons for this too. My pet theory is that lesbianism, simply because men find it hot, is more sympathetic to the straight population, which makes it more attractive propaganda. And this study, or at least the journalist orgasm over it, is pure propagandizing for the “gay agenda.”
  
  On the other hand, I’m totally in favor of the gay agenda, so, keep up the good work!
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Here, let me make it worse.
    - dw_funk
      
      Wow, you weren’t kidding. Attack of the Open Minded Clones.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        37 comments from different IPs in one minute and not one link to Russian hookers or discount Chinese grain threshers.
      - oheso
        
        and not one link to Russian hookers
        
        That’s OK. They made for entertaining reading anyway!
      - trentryan
        
        Yep. I was one of those people that wrote that…I don’t really know what happened. Especially since this article is kinda nsfw in some conservitave places…
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I guess that it’s just one of those weird things.
Anonymous

I personally believe the U.S. Lesbians are able to do so because, uh, some, uh…people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and…I believe that they should, lesbians education over here in the U.S. will make you keep an open mind in the U.S., err, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our…
Anonymous

I guess having lesbian moms can help your kids open there mind and learn more… and stuff… for shizzle my nizzle
Anonymous

Yeah, I mean kids having lesbian parents opens children’s minds because it keeps them more open minded. And stuff.
Anonymous

I think it could just be that women rock. Maybe we should try a matriarchal system again — men should try being more like women for a change, women should reclaim their places at the head of our families, religions, political bodies, etc., and not just to forward the male-centric agenda we have all been following along with for the past 2,000 years, but to really explore what women want the world to look like. Not to sound like a ridiculous ideologue, but honestly if women were in charge I believe there would be less poverty, war, destruction of the environment, and needless death, better education, child-rearing, and health. Honestly, why wouldn’t women raise superior children?
Ultan

Problems:
self-selected, unrepresentative sample,
small sample size
self-reporting (by mothers only – no child or teacher reports, although the “control” group had these)
Bad experimental design, statistical fishing trip
No control for race, income, region, IQ, education, or anything, really.

14 of 84 families were single mothers, of these 4 dropped out vs. only 2 of the 2-parent families (no control data)
The partner-separation rate over the study period was 56%, with a mean child age at separation of 7. (so don’t think this study says anything about superior lesbian family stability)

64% of the sperm donors were unknown
(and no effort to control for their characteristics was made)
93% of the parents were white / 3% black
47% from the Northeast / 43% from the West
18% “working” SES, 25% upper middle/ upper SES
(lower SES than the control group, interestingly)

The so-called control sample was:
67% white / 14% black, 17% from the Northeast / 24% from the West / 40% from the South, 12% “working” SES / 44% upper middle/ upper SES
(the higher proportion of Blacks and Southerners makes this group incomparable with the study group, while the SES differences may compensate, the groups are still incomparable on that count, too.)

The average age of the mothers at birth was 35. (likely higher than average – no control group data provided)

No hypotheses were framed before the study, the data was dumped into a MANOVA (multivariate
analysis of variance – basically an all purpose statistical blender) and anything with a significant difference (p less than 0.05) from the (poorly constructed) control was reported as a finding. This is bad experimental design.

The study compares psychological and academic measures for the control group and the lesbian-parent group and reaches positive conclusions about the lesbian parent group; compares children whose mothers reported homophobic teasing and gets negative conclusions about the effect of homophobia, but does not compare the latter group with the control sample. Further, the study skips over the fact that when teens rather than mothers judge whether the teens have been teased, no effect of homophobic teasing is found. Given that the measurements being compared between the two groups are all reports of the mothers, it seems that this difference is evidence only that mothers who project homophobic teasing when there is none are more likely to give their children low scores (or vice-versa).

No conclusions of any sort should be drawn from this study.
- Christovir
  
  I have no doubt that children in same-sex homes do just fine. That said…
  
  Yikes, this study is worse than I expected… a comedy of methodological errors. Comparing self-report grades from parents to real grades is the E-Z-Bake equivalent for making your own methodological confounds at home. Nearly everyone defines themselves (and their children) as above average in self-ratings.
  
  I’m always suspicious of papers which do a catch-all test with little hypothesizing and then just list the outcomes. That’s usually a sign of some deeper issues which may not be revealed in the write-up. I really don’t see how they get published. Every department has one… the guy who thinks everything can be solved with their statistical blunt weapon of choice, be it a 50-variable regression model, MANOVA, or (my personal favorite) the let’s-just-just-do-100-t-tests approach.