01 Mar US Sociological Association tells supreme court gay marriage and parents are ok
The American Sociological Association (ASA), joined the challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Proposition 8 currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ASA filed a friend-of-the-court brief today (28 February) outlining the latest in social science research into same-sex parenting, stating ‘children fare just as well’ which was a concern raised by opponents of marriage equality.
In a press release posted to the organization’s website, ASA President Cecilia Ridgeway said: ‘The results of our review are clear.
‘There is no evidence that children with parents in stable same-sex or opposite-sex relationships differ in terms of well-being.
‘Indeed, the greater stability offered by marriage for same-sex as well as opposite-sex parents may be an asset for child well-being’.
House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, the National Organization for Marriage, и the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
The ASA brief essentially discredits arguments by opponents of gay marriage equality, including the Republican led House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, the National Organization for Marriage, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, arguments that that same-sex marriage harms children, and that kids ‘do better with a mother and a father’.
It states: ‘When the social science evidence is exhaustively examined—which the ASA has done—the facts demonstrate that children fare just as well when raised by same-sex parents.
‘Unsubstantiated fears regarding same-sex child rearing do not overcome these facts and do not
justify upholding DOMA and Proposition 8’.
This brief is also important as it repeatedly dismantles a flawed gay parenting ‘study’ by University of Texas researcher Mark Regnerus, an ASA member.
Although the study has been widely discredited for flawed methodology, it has been used by many of the supreme court briefs filed by opponents of marriage equality.
The ASA’s brief crushes Regnerus’ ‘research’ saying: ‘As the social science consensus described in Part I demonstrates, the evidence regarding children raised by same-sex parents overwhelmingly indicates that children raised by such families fare just as well as children raised by opposite-sex parents, and that children raised by same-sex parents are likely to benefit from the enhanced stability the institution of marriage would provide to their parents and families.