Five reasons why same-sex marriage will harm children

[mdgspencer]

for this article, see www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource.php?n=539

 

[SwizzleStick]

Thanks for sharing this article. It is very good and contains very sound reasoning as to why same sex marriage will harm children.

 

[adv1sor]

Well, of course I think homosexuality is a sin, but that is one of the most sexist articles I’ve seen on the subject.

 

[TheTrueCentrist]

Those are all good in theory, but does research bear them out?

 

[bingbang]

Those are all good in theory, but does research bear them out?

I doubt it. And any article on a website with “Catholic” or “Christian” in it about gay marriage is going to be about as biased as any article on a gay or lesbian website.

 

[JackVk]

I doubt it. And any article on a website with “Catholic” or “Christian” in it about gay marriage is going to be about as biased as any article on a gay or lesbian website.

So we’re not allowed to have an opinion?

 

[ThomasToo]

So we’re not allowed to have an opinion?

You’re welcome to have an opinion but it ought to be backed up by facts. This article is just armchair speculation without citation of any sources whatsoever. The fact is, however, that the vast majority of data we have simply compares two-(heterosexual)-parent homes to single-parent homes (resulting for divorce, death, incarceration or other reasons) but all the data we do have about two-homosexual-parent households shows that no harm comes to the children; they are just as well socialized, they are no more likely to be homosexual &c&c.

 

[JackVk]

You’re welcome to have an opinion but it ought to be backed up by facts. This article is just armchair speculation without citation of any sources whatsoever. The fact is, however, that the vast majority of data we have simply compares two-(heterosexual)-parent homes to single-parent homes (resulting for divorce, death, incarceration or other reasons) but all the data we do have about two-homosexual-parent households shows that no harm comes to the children; they are just as well socialized, they are no more likely to be homosexual &c&c.

Are we allowed to research it, or will we be branded intolerant, discriminatory gay-haters for trying to find evidence that supports our side?

 

[ThomasToo]

Are we allowed to research it, or will we be branded intolerant, discriminatory gay-haters for trying to find evidence that supports our side?

I think anyone who does research to try to find evidence to support one side is going about things the wrong way. One ought to frame a hypothesis and try mightily to break it with data. It is stipulated that people on my side can be as guilty of this as anyone else.

I hope this does not come off as making any implication that you or yours are racist but what would you think of someone who thought so-called mixed-race marriages harmed children and tried to do research to prove that thesis? The question of whether people who are of different recent ancestry has been long since settled but if it were fresher would that research be licit? Would it be good? Would you see it as anything but racist even if charity would compel you to hope the researchers were truly striving for the good of the children involved?

 

[bingbang]

So we’re not allowed to have an opinion?

I didn’t say that…I just said don’t expect to find a reasonably unbiased article on a Christian website.

 

[Kevin42]

So we’re not allowed to have an opinion?

This issue does not require an opinion as much as it requires scientific evidence. Any “opinion” on this subject not based on facts is at the best irrelevant and at the worst malicious.

 

[JackVk]

I can say I believe it, through personal experience. I was raised by a heterosexual couple that made me who I am today. Without my dad, I would be a spineless, cowardly pushover without any sense of assertion. Without my mom, I would be a sex-crazed idiot with no sense of morality. Mom taught me how to treat women right, and dad taught me how to stand up for myself.

You say this article is biased, but did you click on the original article? The author is a secular psychologist.

 

[ThomasToo]

I can say I believe it, through personal experience. I was raised by a heterosexual couple that made me who I am today. Without my dad, I would be a spineless, cowardly pushover without any sense of assertion. Without my mom, I would be a sex-crazed idiot with no sense of morality. Mom taught me how to treat women right, and dad taught me how to stand up for myself.

You say this article is biased, but did you click on the original article? The author is a secular psychologist.

Your personal story is similar to those of people everywhere. Our parents (be they a man and a woman or two men or two women) are unique individuals with unique passions and viewpoints and we learn different things from each of them. That said, I don’t know if–and please excuse my frankness here–the fact that the person who taught you how to ‘treat women right’ had a vagina and the person who taught you how to ‘stand up for [yourself]’ had a penis is relevant to the fact that they taught you those things.

For example, my parents taught me that in the opposite way; my mom taught me to stand up for myself and my dad taught me to treat people (including women) with respect. Why, then, can’t the child of a gay couple learn self-reliance from one parent and respect from another (at the risk of narrowing the socialization process to the mere installation of two traits)?

Maybe I think better of you than you’d want us to believe in your anecdote but I doubt you would be ‘a spineless, cowardly pushover’ or ‘a sex-crazed idiot with no sense of morality’ if one of your parents had not been involved in your youth and adolescence.

I read the article and it lacked any sort of citation–let alone respectable ones–or proof other than by fiat.

 

[JackVk]

Okay,

chastity.com/chastity-qa/homosexuality/homosexuality/whats-wrong-with-gay

Yes, it’s a Catholic article, and yes, it has a similar message. But this one has citations, as you insist.

 

[ThomasToo]

Okay,

chastity.com/chastity-qa/homosexuality/homosexuality/whats-wrong-with-gay

Yes, it’s a Catholic article, and yes, it has a similar message. But this one has citations, as you insist.

This article is even worse than the first. The first half of it is anecdotal of bad parenting and the desire for a mother and a father, I feel, is indicative more of socialization that supports heteronormativism then any inborn desire for parents with a matching set of genitalia.

The second half includes citations that gays want their relationships to be seen as normal and healthy. These two citations are worse than useless since I don’t know someone who is unwilling to stipulate that point. Two have to do with fidelity and longevity in gay relationships without any comparison to straight ones. The final citation refers obliquely to negative health effects of homosexuality (i.e. AIDS?) and to death which I think is indicative of the high suicide rate amongst people who are told by many that to love the people they love is a hell worthy trespass.

Article grade: D, redo exercise and resubmit
JackVk’s submission grade: A for effort, it does include citations but C- for reading critically.

 

[TheTrueCentrist]

Okay,

chastity.com/chastity-qa/homosexuality/homosexuality/whats-wrong-with-gay

Yes, it’s a Catholic article, and yes, it has a similar message. But this one has citations, as you insist.

The problem is that the plural of anecdote is not data. Even the FRC link in the article does not answer the question “are kids raised in homosexual households different from those in heterosexual households.”

 

[JackVk]

The problem is that the plural of anecdote is not data. Even the FRC link in the article does not answer the question “are kids raised in homosexual households different from those in heterosexual households.”

from the article:

This is not some dreamy ideal, but is the way our bodies have been made, and should be the goal of any healthy civilization. The impact of a mother in her family is unrepeatable, and the same can be said of the father. Two moms don’t make a dad, and two dads do not equal a mom.

what part of it don’t you understand?

 

[bingbang]

from the article:

This is not some dreamy ideal, but is the way our bodies have been made, and should be the goal of any healthy civilization. The impact of a mother in her family is unrepeatable, and the same can be said of the father. Two moms don’t make a dad, and two dads do not equal a mom.

what part of it don’t you understand?

The part that doesn’t have a source and is based on no actual research…so I guess all of it.

 

[SwizzleStick]

A Review and Analysis of Research Studies Which Assessed Sexual Preference of Children Raised by Homosexuals

drtraycehansen.com/Pages/writings_sexpref.html

 

[ThomasToo]

A Review and Analysis of Research Studies Which Assessed Sexual Preference of Children Raised by Homosexuals

drtraycehansen.com/Pages/writings_sexpref.html

I think something important is missing from her analysis, namely a review and analysis of research studies which assessed sexual preference of children raised by heterosexuals. She cites one study, and over ten years old at that, to say 2% of people in the population at large identify as non-heterosexual but that is quite possibly the smallest number I’ve ever seen cited for that value. She does all this writing to show that children raised by gay parents self-identify as non-heterosexual at a rate of around 15% but not that the rest of the population is not holding onto the label of ‘heterosexual’ against their internal inclinations (e.g. Ted Haggard) or are not open with themselves about their sexuality or one of a dozen different factors none of which are that gay parents make straight children gay.

Short version: lacking reasoning and adequate justification of percentage of the population that now identifies as non-heterosexual and implication that correlation implies causation either on the part of the author or poster.