Sexual Orientation of the Parent and Child Custody Proceedings
Many scholars have noted that the struggle that has ensued in the last few decades regarding equal rights and treatment for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is akin to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The struggle is fundamentally the same: portions of Americans are being denied their rights for superficial reasons that they cannot control. Just as one cannot control one's skin color, one can also not control one's sexual orientation. The fact that one's sexual orientation is even a question in child custody proceedings today is something that is going to be considered unfathomable in the decades to come. This paper intends to demonstrate without a doubt that one's sexual orientation, just like one's skin color or even one's religious beliefs, does not impact a child's well-being and should have no weight or bearing on child custody proceedings.
Those who question the ability or safety of gay parenting are largely those who represent bigoted beliefs. In 2012, "Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told a New Hampshire audience that children are better off with a father in prison than being raised in a home with lesbian parents and no father at all. And last Monday (Jan. 9), Pope Benedict called gay marriage a threat 'to the future of humanity itself,' citing the need for children to have heterosexual homes" (Pappas, 2012). These sentiments merely represent the fear and bias of the speakers and demonstrate, lest we forget, that we still live in an imperfect world. These highly prejudiced speakers, a politician and a Pope, were using their very public status to sway the thoughts and opinions of masses of people towards their own fear-based opinions. Neither person had done any research or conducted or gathered any social science data on the subject. The data is there, however, and speaks for itself.
In fact, social science research demonstrates that gay parents...
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