... children still need to be attached to mothers and fathers.

We sometimes hear claims that studies show that same sex couples make fine parents. The most recently reported study was in the June 7, 2010 issue of the journal Pediatrics. This study was based upon the self-reported results of an unrepresentative sample of lesbian mothers of 78 teenagers, hardly a sufficient data set for drawing sweeping conclusions. Yet the headlines went around the world, “Lesbians make the best parents.”  And a 2010 survey of 80 studies admitted that there is very little evidence about male couples as parents. We simply do not have enough data to draw such strong conclusions as, “lesbians make the best parents.”

On the other side of the equation, we have mountains of data showing that children do need both their mothers and their fathers, and that fathers make distinct contributions to the well-being of children. Mothers and fathers are not interchangeable. But redefining marriage will require us to say that they are. In fact, courts are saying silly things like, “the traditional notion that children need a mother and a father to be raised into healthy, well-adjusted adults is based more on stereotype than anything else.” This statement by the Iowa Supreme Court in Varnum v Brien is simply false as a general statement. [Continue reading...]