Homosexual Family Type & Approach

Homosexual Family type & Approach

Introduction

Marriage is holy matrimony with the purpose of companionship, personal support, and procreation. Proposals to legalize same-sex marriage or to enact broad domestic partnership laws are currently being promoted by gay and lesbian activists, especially in Europe and North America. The trend in western European nations during the past decade has been to increase legal aid to homosexual relations and has included marriage benefits to some same-sex couples. For example, within the past six years, three Scandinavian countries have enacted domestic partnership laws allowing same-sex couples in which at least one partner is a citizen of the specified country therefore allowing many benefits that heterosexual marriages are given. In the Netherlands, the Parliament is considering domestic partnership status for same-sex couples, all major political parties favor recognizing same-sex relations, and more than a dozen towns have already done so. Finland provides governmental social profit to gay partners. Belgium allows gay prisoners the right to have conjugal visits from same-sex partners.

Discussion

In the United States, efforts to legalize gay domestic partnership have had some, limited success. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. reported that by mid-1995, thirty-six metropolis, eight counties, three states, five state agencies, and two federal agencies extended some benefits to, or registered for some official purposes, gay domestic partnerships. In 1994, the California legislature passed a domestic partnership bill that provided official state registration of same-sex couples and provided limited marital rights and privileges relating to hospital visitation wills and estates, and powers of attorney. (Chauncey, 2004) While California's Governor Wilson ultimately vetoed the bill, its passage by the legislature represented a notable political attainment for advocates of gay marriage.Many people may believe that the fight against same gender marriage is a product of the religious right.

Children raised in families in which a parent is gay or lesbian do not appear to be affected negatively by their experience. Higgins (2001) found no differences in self-esteem among children of lesbian mothers and those of heterosexual mothers. When investigating anxiety, depression, and consequent contact with a health care professional, Tasker and Golombok (2000) also found no differences among children raised by lesbian mothers and those raised by heterosexual mothers. Golombok et al. (1999) reported no significant differences among children of lesbian mothers and those of heterosexual mothers in terms of emotional difficulties, behavioral difficulties, and hyperactivity. The researchers did find, however, that children raised by heterosexual mothers generally experienced more psychiatric problems and were referred to a psychiatric clinic more often than children raised by lesbian mothers.

It has been hypothesized that, especially during early adolescence, children experience stigma when they are perceived as having parents who are "different". To protect their children from harassment stemming from homophobia, gay and lesbian parents appear to exercise considerable discretion when revealing their sexual orientation. Tasker and Golombok (2000) found that young adults from lesbian family backgrounds are no more likely to remember general teasing or bullying by their peers than young adults ...