LGBTQ Parents: the Stereotypes and Heteronormativity

Patterson’s abstract discusses how research shows that the sexual orientation of the parent(s) have little impact on their children’s development. She goes on to talk about how the development of these children both emotionally and socially is unrelated to their parents’ sexual orientation. 

However, the children’s development can be affected by how their community responds to their parent’s sexuality, whether it is negative or positive. This shows direct correlation between the mental health of the parents and the development of their children.

For child development, identity is important for their role models: in a study, “Gay fathers who reported less well-developed gay identities also reported greater parenting stress.” 

In another study (that is still being researched), researchers found that the scope of a child’s career options can be affected by the division of labor that the parents set between themselves. Patterson mentions about how little information there is on adults raised by LGBTQ parents, and has observations on what needs to be studied further. Patterson believes that more studies should be focused on more ethnically diverse communities, as most of this research has been on “urban, White, middle-class lesbian and gay parents.” She also mentions how bisexual parents and their children require more in-depth research, which can include the rest of the LGBTQ community as well. 

The information in this entry is very generic and overstated in many other research papers. While the point of the paper is strong, the argument itself was very weak and parroted from other studies and research papers. One thing I do appreciate about this piece is the honesty on what has been studied thus far, and what she hopes to be studied in the future. I do believe that minorities are horrifically underrepresented. Unfortunately, this offers nothing in terms of support or challenge to my ideas.

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