Gay Lesbian Parenting

The research from Paper Masters on gay and lesbian parenting often focuses on Struggles Within Gay and Lesbian Parenting. Our sociology writers will custom write your research project on any topic concerning gay and lesbian studies you need. Get help today with writing at the college level.

When you begin to conduct research to be knowledgeable about prevalence and other dimensions (e.g. needs of persons facing the issue) of this issue, you will want to focus on the following areas of study:

1. State how the problem is typically addressed?
2. Include a discussion of a family-centered perspective for understanding and intervening in the selected area.
3. Include empowerment based strategies to enhance the individual's and family's ability to effectively cope with the identified stressor.
4. A discussion of culture in the term paper, strengths, and the use of natural supports is also strongly recommended.

Other Gay and Lesbian Parenting Issues to discuss

Write a plan to pursue indirect services with the families and children (Administration and Planning). Develop an intervention in the research paper at the macro-level. The program or policy you develop should respond to the needs you raise in the above section.

Research from Paper Masters can examine the issue of gay and lesbian parenting in American society. It demonstrates that, despite widespread opposition to increased rights for lesbian and gay parents in many parts of the country, the numbers of families headed by such parents continue to increase. In addition, a large volume of scholarly literature indicates that gay and lesbian parents are at least as effective at parenting as their heterosexual counterparts. Nonetheless, the study also demonstrates that this literature is plagued by certain unavoidable weaknesses that undermine the validity of some of the researchers' conclusions. Until American society learns to accept gays and lesbians and grant them equal rights, more definitive research will be impossible, and the children of lesbians and gays will continue to suffer as a consequence of the legal and social marginalization that their parents are forced to endure.

Introduction to Research on Gay and Lesbian Parenting

The issue of gay and lesbian parenting is a complex and intensely controversial one in American society. Although the proportions of American children who are raised as members of so-called "alternative" families-including gay and lesbian families as well as single-parent households, "blended" families involving the offspring of various unions, adoptive and foster homes, and families headed by one or more grandparent-has steadily risen in recent years, many public figures continue to celebrate the virtues of the "traditional" family. In fact, the "traditional" household forms much-idealized by "family values" politicians and numerous TV situation comedies now constitute a dwindling minority of all American households, with families involving married heterosexual parents and their children comprising just 23 percent of all the nation's households by the start of the twenty-first century.

Despite such significant demographic changes, almost none of the so-called alternative family forms have been the subject of as much hullabaloo as have families headed by same-sex partners united in long-term commitments. Reliable data on the numbers of gay and lesbian parents in the United States are difficult to obtain, given the fact that, despite a measured tolerance for gays and lesbians in certain parts of the country, stubbornly persistent stigmas against same-sex parenting compel many lesbian and gay parents to conceal their identities. Nevertheless, informed projections indicate that in recent years there have been somewhere between 1 million and 5 million lesbian mothers in United States, and between 1 million to 3 million gay American fathers. Together, gay and lesbian parents are the heads of families involving between 6 million and 14 million American children.

Unfortunately, the scholarly literature on the subject of lesbian and gay parenting is riven by controversies that are at times strikingly similar to those that characterize the public debates on the subject. Paper Masters research suggests that although much of the debate surrounding same-sex parenting in academic and professional circles ultimately derives from the homophobic attitudes of many researchers and professionals, the controversies also derive to a certain extent from lingering uncertainties about how lesbian and gay parenting might impact children's adjustment and welfare. For example, these issues are particularly important for professionals, researchers, and policymakers involved in decisions over whether children in out-of-home care-many of whom have been the victims of physical and/or emotional neglect and abuse-should be placed with gay and lesbian foster or adoptive parents. Some specialists express concern that any special problems and challenges associated with gay and lesbian parenting will expose foster or adopted children to further stresses that exacerbate the impacts of previous maltreatment.

Although the study uses the terms "gay" and "lesbian" to refer, respectively, to men and women who have romantic and/sexual relationships with members of the same gender, the author is conscious of the immense diversity that characterizes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other "alternative" experiences-and the diverse outlooks and experiences of so-called "lesbian" and "gay" parents.