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- Xref: sparky sci.skeptic:19113 soc.motss:46346 alt.atheism:20738 alt.sex:35098 talk.religion.misc:20551
- Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,soc.motss,alt.atheism,alt.sex,talk.religion.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!utcsri!psych.toronto.edu!paul
- From: paul@psych.toronto.edu (Paul Hastings)
- Subject: Re: Correlation between sexual preference of parents and children
- Message-ID: <1992Nov6.170023.3585@psych.toronto.edu>
- Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
- References: <01050133.huhe46@caligula.cts.com>
- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 17:00:23 GMT
- Lines: 37
-
- In article <01050133.huhe46@caligula.cts.com> edw%caligula@phlpa.pha.pa.us writes:
- >We were having a discussion in Ethics today about something, and I was
- >wondering if anyone has any information on this. By the way, I am
- >interested in data here, and not everyone's opinion on the matter.
- >
- >Does anyone know if there is any correlation between the sexual pref-
- >erences of parents and their children? I'm talking about environmental
- >factors, and not genetic factors. In other words, if a child has two
- >gay or lesbian parents (or one), is there an increased chance that the
- >child will be gay, lesbian or bisexual?
- >
-
- The latest issue of _Child Development_ has a lead-off article by
- Jan Peterson on gay and lesbian parents. It reviews more-or-less
- all of the research done to date on children of LBG people, and
- distinguishes whether the research participants were gay before
- or after the birth of the child, whether they have custody, whether
- they're single parents or have partners, etc. As well, it points
- out the deficit of research on alternative structure families,
- such as co-parenting. Excellent article, really.
-
- To answer your question: Doesn't look like having a LBG parent
- increases the odds of being a LBG individual. Surprising, but
- then there are lots of holes in the research to date. Not enough
- long-term work, given how late in life many people 'come out'.
- Not much comparison between folks who admit to their children
- that they're gay versus those who hide it.
-
- I recommend the article highly.
-
- -paul
-
- --
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Paul Hastings paul@psych.utoronto.ca 545 Dovercourt Road
- University of Toronto 416-978-3990 Toronto, Ont. M6H 2W5
- M. Mark: I can teach you to dance with no intoxication. (yeah, right!)
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