Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Marriage equality: the cold, hard facts

By Rodney Croome - posted Wednesday, 24 August 2011


The same-sex marriage debate needs a shot of hard empirical evidence to counter the fantasies peddled by the opponents of change.

The most recent meme from the religious right is that when lesbians like Finance Minister Penny Wong have kids it leads to riots, London-style.

Not unexpectedly, this link has been mocked.

Advertisement

But it is a mistake to dismiss the ideas behind it. They form a kind of morality tale that may be superficially appealing to social conservatives who might otherwise be supporters of marriage equality.

The pattern of thought behind the Wong/London connection is this:

Marriage is not about the "selfish needs" of adults, it's about providing children with the best possible start in life through a secure and stable family life.

Children need a mother or a father to have the best start in life. In particular, boys suffer from not have their biological father around.

Their "father-wounds" lead to "existential angst", addiction, self harm, disrespect for authority, delinquency and imprisonment (insert reference to London riots here).

Thus, as you'd expect in this rotten, fallen world, a minor vice like selfishness leads, via the absence of a manly authority, to the chaos of children rioting in the streets.

Advertisement

But the facts don't sustain this Hobbesian narrative.

First, it's not possible to separate the benefits of marriage to parents and the benefits of marriage to children.

The author of When Gay People Get Married, Professor Lee Badgett, has spent many years studying the lives of same-sex partners and their children in several places where same-sex marriage is allowed.

She has found that married same-sex partners have stronger relationships, a greater sense of commitment and security, and participate more in their extended families.

She also found the children of these couples experience an increased sense of security, recognition and inclusion that is directly related to their parents' marriage and sense of well-being.

It's obvious but it needs to be said: the reason marriage is good for children is that it is good for their parents. Badgett's research shows this to be true for no-one more than same-sex couples and their children.

But in case that's not clear enough, the son of one of the same-sex couples who will have dinner with the Prime Minister later in the year to discuss marriage equality has written a letter for his parents to give Julia in which he encapsulates the truth the research has shown: "when my mums are happy I'm happy too".

The second fact that disrupts the descent-into-fatherless-chaos narrative is that the children raised by same-sex couples have the same level of intellectual, emotional, social, sexual adjustment as their peers.

If you don't believe me then here's the Australian Psychological Society position on the issue.

"...parenting practices and children's outcomes in families parented by lesbian and gay parents are likely to be at least as favourable as those in families of heterosexual parents, despite the reality that considerable legal discrimination and inequity remain significant challenges for these families."

The American Psychological Association, the American Paediatric Associations and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry all agree. Here's the latter two:

"Research comparing children raised by homosexual parents to children raised by heterosexual parents has found no developmental differences in intelligence, psychological adjustment, social adjustment, or peer popularity between them."

"Outcome studies of children raised by parents with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, when compared to heterosexual parents, show no greater degree of instability in the parental relationship or developmental dysfunction in children."

Whoever it was trashing shops in London three weeks ago, we can be sure most of them were not the children of gay and lesbian parents.

To be fair, a lack of empiricism is not only a problem on the religious right. It is also a handicap for the sexual left.

For example, in a recent column, University of Melbourne lecturer, Lauren Rosewarne, says she supports gay rights but not gay marriage because she's no fan of marriage.

"It's as though culturally we'll accept Penny and Sophie's obviously deviant dyad provided that they make it look as close as possible to a vanilla, heterosexual union.

"This of course means no letting of your freak flag fly, no appearances at Mardi Gras, just look as respectably heterosexual as possible and we'll treat you half decently.

"The equal homosexual shouldn't have to act straight-enough to be accepted by bigots. I don't call that progress."

This is a deeply demeaning and stereotyped view of who gay people are or should be.

When we have children or ask for the right to marry it's not because we want to "look" normal or "act" like other people.

It's because our relationships and families are like those of other people.

Studies of same-sex couples and their families confirm this.

A large-scale study by Professor Glen Elder found that same-sex couples from across America registered under the Vermont's civil union scheme were not different to other couples. He concluded,

"[w]hat's most interesting about this analysis…is the banality of the results. Civil union households simply don't differ that much from those of the general population".

A second study of recognised partners in the US, recently released by the University of Minnesota, affirmed this result. It found that the gay people surveyed valued romantic love, faithfulness and commitment no less than their heterosexual peers.

Given these findings it should be no surprise that successive Australian censuses show the number of same-sex couples is increasing most dramatically in suburban and regional Australia.

The growing tolerance of same-sex relationships is allowing more and more gay and lesbian Australians to stay in, or move to, places that were once hostile.

The demand for marriage equality is a result of this demographic shift. We want to marry, not to become something we're not, but as recognition of what we already are.

We aren't hiding the "freak flag" because we have no such flag to fly.

The Australian marriage equality debate will inevitably grow more intense as reform nears.

To ensure the debate is as constructive as possible, it is vital ideological posturing and moralising on both the right and left is challenged with hard facts.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

41 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Rodney Croome is a spokesperson for Equality Tasmania and national advocacy group, just.equal. He who was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for his LGBTI advocacy.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Rodney Croome

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 41 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy