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The first conception to adolescence study to follow daughters and sons of lesbian couples has found that kids raised by two female parents grow up to be better adjusted and higher achieving than their peers.
The U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS) followed 77 lesbian families for 25 years when they were first starting the donor insemination process. Those kids are now 18 to 23 years old, and the most recent data was collected by asking parents and their now 17-year-old kids to fill out standardized psychological questionnaires about their feelings and experiences.
The NLLFS discovered that teens raised by lesbian parents are rated higher in social and academic areas, as well as overall confidence, and have lower rates of negative teen behaviors like rule-breaking and aggression. This came as a surprise to NLLFS principal investigator Nanette Gartrell, MD, who told CNN.com, “I would have anticipated the kids would be doing as well as the normative sample. I didn’t expect better.”
Fred Phelps is planning to bring his hate show on the road to Mississippi to picket Constance McMillen’s high school graduation.
The students of Itawamba Regional High School and their parents sent Constance and her girlfriend to a fake prom last month while they partied at a secret prom thrown by parents.
After that stunt, someone might have thought those parents were the most immature bigots in the country. Phelps doesn’t want to let his rep slide, so he’s heading down to show them how pathetic adults can really be when they’re wrapped up in hate and attacking the vulnerable.
Remember Constance McMillen? She’s the student that was banned from escorting her girlfriend to the senior prom in Mississippi. The local branch of the A.C.L.U jumped to her defense and petitioned the school on her behalf. School officials responded that same-sex dates (not to mention tuxedo-wearing females) were against school policy. The civil rights organization shot back that said policy was unconstitutional. End result: the prom was canceled for everyone. Luckily for Constance (and all non-heterosexual kids), the A.C.L.U. wants to continue to fight the fight.
As if 18-year-old Constance McMillen didn’t have enough obstacles to overcome in her life, she now has the distinction of being the person who got her high school prom canceled.
McMillen, with the assistance of the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, had petitioned the Itawamba County School District Board to allow her attend the Itawamba Agricultural High School prom with her date. The problem, at least as the school board sees it, is that McMillen is a lesbian and her prospective date is a girl. Continue reading »
It’s a continual lament around our house — there are so few films that are suitable for young children. My mother-in-law likes to take her grandkids to the movies, but it’s hard to find ones that we feel are acceptable. Being animated doesn’t automatically mean a film is okay for the little ones. Even Disney films are, in our house, “for big kids” because of the violence and gender stereotypes. So when a state decides to offer a tax credit for “family-friendly” films being made there, it sounds like an idea long overdue.
I imagine that, as a child in the foster-care system, it would be difficult to trust anyone, be it case workers, foster parents, or pretty much any adult. But when an entire foster-care program throws up its hands and walks away, that’s got to hurt. Especially when the reason is as irrelevant and malicious as a personal opposition to same-sex marriage. That, however, is exactly what the Catholic Church has done in Washington D.C.
Despite the fact that virtually every professional organization agrees with the American Psychological Association when they say “efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates,” high school students in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland were given information from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays last week, claiming that sexual orientation is merely a choice. And a bad one at that.
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