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St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

425

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Research on lesbigay parenting issues is reviewed with an in-depth focus on a few examples of past research and a review of the merits of social science research cited recently by the American Civil Liberties Union in support of gay parenting rights. Those who have reviewed the literature have come to startling different conclusions. Neither side has fully grasped some of the limitations of certain key research studies. Some errors are such that one might wonder if peer review procedures had somehow failed. An analysis of a recent paper on same-gender sexual abuse reveals mixed findings. It appears that a significantly higher percentage of gay and lesbian parents may abuse foster children but at the same time, a majority of such parents probably do not abuse foster children. A new social science mid-range theory for explaining stigma against homosexuals and for explaining heterosexual concerns about gay marriage is presented, labeled differential risk theory, a subset of social exchange theory. There is a large body of research on the legal issues associated with gay marriage and child custody. Other writers have provided interesting and open-minded commentary from a religious perspective. Being neither a lawyer nor a cleric by profession, I must put my hope in reader agreement with Cere, who argued that: [m]arriage and family are too important as social institutions, affecting too many people, especially children, for basic decisions about their legal underpinnings to remain the private province of legal experts alone. There is an urgent need for the involvement of disciplines besides the law to identify, understand, and critique the legal theories of marriage and family life that are helping to shape new trends.

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