同性恋是最好的父母?

Gay marriage, and especially gay parenting, has been in the cross hairs in recent days.

On Jan. 6, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told a New Hampshire audience that children are better off with a father in prison than being raised in a home with lesbian parents and no father at all. And last Monday (Jan. 9)， Pope Benedict called gay marriage a threat "to the future of humanity itself," citing the need for children to have heterosexual homes.

But research on families headed by gays and lesbians doesn't back up these dire assertions. In fact, in some ways, gay parents may bring talents to the table that straight parents don't.

Gay parents "tend to be more motivated, more committed than heterosexual parents on average, because they chose to be parents," said Abbie Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark University in Massachusetts who researches gay and lesbian parenting. Gays and lesbians rarely become parents by accident, compared with an almost 50 percent accidental pregnancy rate among heterosexuals, Goldberg said. "That translates to greater commitment on average and more involvement."

And while research indicates that kids of gay parents show few differences in achievement, mental health, social functioning and other measures, these kids may have the advantage of open-mindedness, tolerance and role models for equitable relationships, according to some research. Not only that, but gays and lesbians are likely to provide homes for difficult-to-place children in the foster system, studies show.

Research has shown that the kids of same-sex couples — both adopted and biological kids — fare no worse than the kids of straight couples on mental health, social functioning, school performance and a variety of other life-success measures.

Children of gay parents also reported feeling less stymied by gender stereotypes than they would have been if raised in straight households. That's likely because gays and lesbians tend to have more egalitarian relationships than straight couples, Goldberg said.

"Men and women felt like they were free to pursue a wide range of interests," Goldberg said. "Nobody was telling them, 'Oh, you can't do that, that's a boy thing,' or 'That's a girl thing.'"

同性恋结婚，特别是同性恋双亲，近日颇受关注。

1月6日，来自共和党的总统候选人里克•桑托姆对新罕布什尔州的观众说，比起那些被女同性恋抚养，根本就没有父亲的孩子，那些父亲身处监狱中的孩子境况更好。上周一(1月9日)教皇本笃以孩子需要异性恋的家庭为论据，将同性恋婚姻称作对“人类未来”的威胁。

但是对同性恋家庭的调查并不支持这一可怕的言论。事实上，在某些方面，同性恋父母可能会激发孩子的才能，而性取向正常的父母却不能。

同性恋父母“比异性恋父母普遍更有动力、更勇于承担，因为他们做父母是出自自己的选择，” 艾比•高伯如是说，她是马萨诸塞州克拉克大学的心理学家，研究同性恋父母对子女的养育。异性恋夫妇约有50%的人是意外怀孕从而成为父母的，而同性恋很少是意外成为父母的，高伯说，“这就解释了同性恋父母为什么普遍更勇于承担，在抚养子女上投入更多。”

研究表明，同性恋父母抚养的孩子在成就、心理健康和社交及其他方面和其他孩子并没有什么不同，这些孩子可能在某些方面还具有优势，如思想开明、宽容，他们在平等关系方面也有人做榜样。研究显示，同性恋父母还可能收容那些福利系统难以安排的孩子。

研究显示，同性夫妻的孩子，不管是养子还是亲生子，在心理、社交、学业还有很多其它人生成就方面都不比正常夫妻的孩子差。

比起正常家庭成长起来的孩子，同性恋父母抚养的孩子较少因为性别受到阻碍，高伯说，这很有可能是因为同性恋夫妻比异性恋夫妻的关系更平等。

高伯说，“同性恋家庭中成长起来的男性和女性都觉得他们可以自由地追求广泛的爱好。没有人会对他们说，‘噢，你不能这么做，这是男孩该做的或这是女孩该做的。’”