Adults conceived through donor insemination (DI) who have lesbian parents were generally satisfied with their knowledge of and contact level with their donor siblings, according to recent findings from the longest-running study of lesbian families.
How do donor-conceived adults with lesbian parents think about parenting their own kids? And what do the lesbian parents think about becoming grandparents? Recent results from the longest-running study of lesbian families shed light on these questions.
Adults conceived through donor insemination (DI) who have lesbian parents are generally satisfied with the amount of contact they have with their donors, whether or not they know them, according to the latest results from the longest-running study of lesbian families.
Young adults with lesbian parents were more likely than their peers to report a same-sex attraction, identity, or experiences, according to the latest results from the longest-running study on LGBTQ-parent families. But while this might trigger panic among those who have fought for years to convince the world that queer parents don’t “make” our kids queer, too, we should all just calm down. Here’s the deal–and why these findings should be celebrated.
Thirty-two years ago, Nanette Gartrell, M.D., launched a project to follow the first wave of lesbian families created through donor insemination. Now, her National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS) is the longest-running study on LGBTQ-parent families, and Gartrell and her team have just released a paper about the now-grown children at 25 years old. Gartrell, a psychiatrist and Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, spoke with me about the latest results and more.
Young adults with lesbian parents are just as mentally healthy as their peers–and while that may feel like another “We could have told you that” headline, the data is coming from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running study on LGBTQ-parent families, so it’s worth paying attention.
A new study has found that adolescents with lesbian moms had higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of conduct problems compared with peers in families that have a mom and a dad. Importantly, this is the first study to compare adolescent—parent relationships and well-being in families where the parents — both lesbian and straight — were all continuously coupled. This is key to combating some of the apples-to-oranges comparisons that have plagued right-wing analyses of lesbian and gay parenting — and seems perfectly timed to help fight a federal case that starts today.
At yesterday’s U. S. Supreme Court hearing on marriage equality, Justice Samuel Alito asked, “But you want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution [same-sex marriage] which is newer than cell phones or the Internet? I mean we—we are not—we do not have the ability to see the future.” I have an answer for him.
The latest results from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running and largest study of American lesbian families, show that almost all of the teens in the NLLFS are academically successful and say they are happy with their lives. That’s great news—but brings with it one matter for concern.
New results from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), the longest-running and largest study of American lesbian families, have shown that the lack of male role models “did not adversely affect the psychological adjustment of 17-year-old teens raised in lesbian-headed households.” The findings directly address one of the key criticisms leveled at same-sex parents: that the lack of role models of both genders will somehow hurt children’s well-being and development.
