LGBTQ Parents: their Hardships and Heteronormativity

The article starts by stating that, “approximately three million LGBT Americans have had a child and an estimated six million Americans (children and adults) have an LGBT parent.” It compares parenthood of heterosexual parents and same-sex parents and how strikingly similar they are to each other. Farr and Tornello briefly describe the different ways that same-sex couples can have children, and then proceed to talk about the adverse effects of becoming parents. A study found that lesbian couples had more arguments and less love in their relationship while going through the process of becoming parents, while gay couples take less time to be with their partners than before they become parents. While these are negative tendencies for same-sex couples, they are still quite common in heterosexual couples as well. In adoption, a study has shown that children adopted by same-sex couples grow attached to their parents almost the same as heterosexual couples, with little to no difference. Farr and Tornello compare how gender roles play out in heterosexual families as well as same-sex parents, and found that they had minor differences that had little effect in the long term, and “same-sex parents had less gender stereotypical play behavior than did those with heterosexual parents.”

The article has a strong argument in that heterosexual parents and same-sex parents have very little differences, along with their children. The argument that Farr and Tornello present does have a thorn in its side that harms its credibility – it’s confirmation bias. While reading the article, it felt as though they were trying to answer their question before they researched it, as if to prove they were right from the beginning. While the narrative feels subconsciously biased, their sources are relevant and credible, and the subject was well researched. I can find the similarities to be beneficial in the final product.

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