“New evidence from Canada seriously challenges the notion that children in same-sex households do just as well as those growing up in married mum and dad homes,” FamilyVoice research officer Ros Phillips said today.
Dr Douglas Allen, economics professor at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, reports in his peer-reviewed study “High school graduation rates among children of same-sex households” (Review of Economics of the Household, September 2013) that children living with gay and lesbian families in 2006 were about 65 % as likely to graduate compared to children living in opposite sex marriage families. Daughters of lesbian parents had dramatically lower graduation rates.
The study was based on a huge 20% of the 2006 Canada census. It identified a random sample of self-reported children living with same-sex parents and used an objective measure to compare outcomes. Canadian same-sex couples have had access to all taxation and government benefits since 1997 and to marriage since 2005.
“Last year, we publicised the findings of the New Family Structure Study which found that children do best when they grow up in stable married mum and dad homes,” Ros Phillips said. “Previous same-sex parenting studies showing ‘no difference’ have been found to employ seriously flawed methodology. For example, a much touted ongoing Australian gay parenting study is based on volunteer subjects who report on their own children’s progress – hardly an objective measure.
“I await factual mainstream media reports of Dr Allen’s research with great interest,” Ros Phillips said.
Mrs Roslyn Phillips, BSc DipEd National Research Officer FamilyVoice Australia: a Christian voice for family, faith and freedom Website: www.fava.org.au
