Single-sex families drive an emerging 21st century American social paradigm shift: research debates effects on children

Date
2017
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Spanning merely 44 years between mid-20th century and the present, three remarkable events informed the lives of homosexual individuals as well as the cultural profile of American families: in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness; in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision compelling all 50 states to recognize marriage between lesbian couples and gay couples; and in 2016, Mississippi was the last state to prohibit single-sex couples from adopting children. Considering these facts, it is easier to grasp the overwhelming inequitable obstacles facing this population, particularly those individuals who long to be parents. ☐ In Chapter Two, I will track some decades-old judicial and cultural obstacles, and advancements, marking the gay and lesbian community’s journey toward the right to marry and to build families. Included among the challenges I will discuss are: 1) national and state governments’ resistance to the idea of homosexuals fostering children; 2) national legal and public opinion roadblocks to the idea of homosexuals adopting children: 3) complex custody challenges resulting from currently available medical and technical advances, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy; and 4) print and electronic media coverage of these issues. ☐ In Chapter Three, I will collate conflicting research data supporting and/or opposing the argument that children raised in single-sex households can achieve optimal cognitive and social potentials that parallel those of children raised in traditional heterosexual families.
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Keywords
Social sciences
Citation