What happens to kids raised by gay parents?

[RamboLiberal]

Rebecca Meiksin, 22, is white, middle-class, college-educated, with plans to earn a graduate degree in public health.

Terrance McGeorge, 20, is black, grew up in the Hill District, has a high school degree and works in an AmeriCorps service program at Beginning With Books.

Despite their differences, both of these young people have something in common with the new grandson of the vice president of the United States, who was born to Mary Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, on May 23: They grew up in a family with a gay parent.

And both of them believe they have turned out just fine-- in no small way because of how they were raised.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07161/793042-51.stm

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

1. Loving parents are loving parents, period

No matter what their sexual orientation. I've known one young woman for about 4 years whose parents divorced; her father came out when she was a young child, maybe 6 or 7. (I should mention that she does happen to be straight.) Her upbringing hasn't had any kind of negative effect on her at all, and she is just like many other 24 year-old women out there - she works, she dates, etc., but has a unique perspective on the world. In fact, the degree of tolerance that most children have at a very young age and later lose, she's managed to hang on to. That gives her a real advantage in dealing with interpersonal relationships. She is very close to her dad and his longtime partner, and her dad's partner has come to treat her as if she were his daughter too. It's a really great thing to see, and I wish more people in mainstream society would open their eyes and minds to how "normal" families with gay parents really are.

[pnwmom]

5. And so are self-centered parents.

Neither love nor self-centeredness has to do with sexual orientation. Unfortunately, that means there are just as many mistakes made by gay parents as by straight.

Sometimes we want to see this through rose-colored glasses. The fact is, children of gays in MOST communities (not all) still do have an extra battle in life, and their parents should acknowledge and help them with this.

I'm speaking as a child of a gay father who is in contact with many other adult "kids" of gays. Things are better now than they were when I was growing up, but it doesn't help children when the adults around them minimize their struggles. But children of gays have to deal with bigotry just as much as their parents do.

[shenmue]

2. What happens? Not much.

They grow up happy and healthy. :scared: This must be stopped! :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

:crazy:

Or, we could just let 'em live and be happy. There's a thought.

[tomreedtoon]

3. Sure, "you" might let 'em live, but you aren't their classmates.

Most of you people don't understand, or you've deliberately forgotten your youth. Kids with gay parents will be punching bags and be humiliated by their classmates. What? Do you think teachers give a damn what happens to a bullied kid? You have really obliterated your memories of childhood.

Those kids will simply have a harder row to hoe. Hopefully, their parents will clue them in early and give them the self-esteem (and possibly self-defense training) so they'll survive to adulthood. I think anybody who was gay, and who survived into adulthood, should have a fairly high Survival Quotient and would naturally want to pass that body of knowledge along to their children.

[dsc]

12. some teachers care because we were bullied ourselves

but yes, gay parents would be fools not to make sure their children knew the consequences of public knowledge of their sexual orientation.

[pnwmom]

6. Depends on the parents, just like with straight parents.

Nothing is automatic.

[DeSwiss]

4. What happens to kids raised by gay parents?

Well, at first they poop a lot and spit up on you when you have on your best suit. Then, once they can feed themselves, they go about eating you and your partner out of house and home. Then one day they decide that they're no longer going to eat anything you fix. But they keep growing anyhow and you have to buy ridiculously expensive sneakers so they don't get laughed at in gym.

Then they turn into teenagers. That's when you start checking with relatives about "family anomalies."

Then one day when all is quiet and everyone is gone off somewhere to spend you and your partner's hard-earned money, and you both look at each other at the same time. And utter the same words, universal:

"What The Hell Were We Thinking?!?!?!?!"

After that, when you get old they put in you a nursing home and never come to visit. Unless you have a will. Then they let you have the room over the garage.....

THE END.

[NMDemDist2]

7. yup, I think that pretty much covers it

:rofl:

[eridani]

8. I'd say that the last word here is by Audre Lorde's then teen-aged daughter

After one typical parent-adolescent mutual hissyfit, her daughter said "You guys think you're sooo different just because you're lesbians. Well, you're NOT!" That about sums it up.

[DeSwiss]

9. I Love It!!!!

:rofl:

[Lisa]

10. an admittedly-unscientific survey at the daycare down the street ...

... suggests that neither hetrosexual nor same-sex couples get much cuddling after the children are born. One mother commented, "if it's just gay or lesbian sex that people are opposed to, they should realize that making us have kids will put a stop to it, because we'll be too tired!"

(My province has had same-sex marriage for the past few years, and interestingly, most of the same-sex couples at that daycare are married, while most of the hetrosexual couples are not!)

[nealmhughes]

11. I would bet they grow up, the same as kids with straight parents.

Probably a lot of name calling, a fist fight or two, a lot of missed invitations, but then again, a fat kid or a gay kid or a kid with a handicap gets that same treatment as well.