Same Sex Parenting - Got Love?

From Family Research Council's Washington Update, December 8, 2006, by Tony Perkins:

"Study after study demonstrates that no amount of care or financial privilege can compensate for the missing physical and emotional benefits experienced by children who enjoy the lifelong love and presence of a married mother and father.

"Comprehensive studies published in the peer-reviewed journals Archives of General Psychiatry, Interpersonal Violence, Social Service Research, Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Nursing Research, Developmental Psychology, Adolescence, and others too numerous to list here, all cite the devastating effects of domestic violence, increased substance abuse, mental health problems, sexual identity confusion, depression, and suicide associated with the homosexual lifestyle. A child fortunate enough to escape those realities still faces a distinct disadvantage throughout childhood--the irreplaceable influence of the missing biological parent. In rearing children, the complementary contributions of a mother and father are rooted in the innate differences of the two sexes, and can no more be arbitrarily replaced than can the very nature of male and female."

My response:
I'm not aware of any of the studies that supposedly back that up, but what the so-called "family values" crowd don't seem to understand or refuse to acknowledge is that the benefits to a child of having "lifelong love" don't necessarily have to come from a married mother and father. Some married parents are abusive and dysfunctional, whereas many homosexual parents can easily provide the love and nurturing that children need. There may be a lot of psychopathology in a subset of homosexuals (and heterosexuals!), but I suspect that much of that is due to their marginalization by society and fear of persecution, not their homosexuality itself.

Comment by a friend (RO):
"The tremendous conceit among these people is that they present the
mother/father/children nuclear family scenario as some sort of
universal, ancient and timeless form that has served humanity since
we got thrown out of Eden. What needs to be done to counter their
argument is to point out constantly that not only is the American/
Western/Christian nuclear family a recent phenomenon, its present
form bears no resemblance to only a few decades ago. Furthermore,
the fact of abuse, mental despair and dysfunction in the very family
structure these outfits claim to be the one and only road to
stability makes their very claims transparent and false. Sometimes
a scholarly article or two appears on this subject, but the argument
needs to go mainstream and constant -- if only to counter the
immersion tactics these groups use to make their message seem to
be the only one."