Are gay parents as good?; The experts say yes; A QUESTION OF PARENTING RUSNELL, CHARLES; Journal Staff Writer, Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alta] 22 Sep 1997: A.12. Alberta's policy of denying homosexual people the opportunity to be foster parents is not supported by academic research, say several of North America’s leading experts on parenting and child development. Infact, more than 40 years of research in Europe and North America have conclusively shown, without exception, that sexual orientation has nothing to do with either good parenting or how a child wail turn out, "To be a good parent, it isn't necessary thal you have lo have a mate of the opposite sex," said Dr, Susan Bradley, chief psychiatrist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and a specialist in child gender identity and disorder at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry. “What's far more important is to provide a warm, caring, supportive environment in which you have parents who understand children’s needs, are sensitive to treating them at the age level they need to be treated, and who set limits. In other words, all the normal things that normal parents do.” {In July, Alberta Family and Social Services Minister Lyle Oberg implemented a policy that effectively barred homosexuals from being foster parents, Alegal challenge of the policy has been launched by an Edmontan woman, known as Mrs. T. For 17 years, she was considered an exemplary foster mother and had opened her home to 74 children. Bul when social services learned she had ended her heterosexual marriage and was a lesbian, it wouldn't place any more children with her hecause she lived in a "non-traditional" family unit Before Oberg implemented his policy, he had agreed to review the issue if it could be proved that homosexuals are suilabie parents. “ILis our opinion its not the most optimal or most stable environment possible,” said Oberg.Last week, Ms. T and two Universily of Alberta academics released a report confirming thal gays and lesbians make good parents. “The bottom line is that there was really no evidence from any point of view that would suggest that gays and lesbians were anything else but very fit and adequate parents,” said Dr. Lorne. Warneke, a professor of psychiatry at the university and one of the report's authors. For his section of the report, Warneke reviewed more than 75 academic articles and three books on sexual orientation, parenting and child development that covered more than 40 years of research, Several of the academics cited by Warneke in his report had been previously interviewed by The Journal, All said Oberg’s policy has no basis in academic research, Its rare for social scientific studies to be unanimous in their findings, the academies said, but on this issue, all credible research has found that children raised by gay or lesbian parents develop no differently - either physically, psychologically, emotionally or intellectually -than children reared by a heterosexual parent. "The research is pretty clear that the sexual orientation of a parent really isn’t a significant factor in a child's development, acknowledged as North America’s leading researcher in the area of gay and lesbian parenting said University of Virginia psychologist Dr. Charlotte Patterson, widely Few studies have been done about the fostering of children by homosexuals. But based on their knowledge and experience, neither Patterson nor Toranto psychiatrist Dr. Susan Bradley would hesitate to place a child with a same-sex foster family "I would say there is certainly nothing in the research literature to give anyone any hesitation about the idea of a lesbian or gay foster parent.” Patterson said. “There is no reason to believe that sexual orientation and parenting ability are related to one another. Other factors are far more important in determining whether a person would be a suitable foster parent.”Said Bradley: "There is no evidence to suggest that same-sex couples are going to be worse foster parents than heterosexual foster parents.” Traditional academic research, however, has been assalled by 2 religious, right-wing, American lobby group called Focus on the Family. The group, which has an office in Vancouver, distributes a document called Homosexual Parenting: Bad for Children, Bad for Society, prepared by its research arm, the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council The council does not put forward any independent research on homosexual parenting. Instead. it allaoks the mainstream research as "scant, highly politicized and conducted largely by lesbian researchers in very limited samples.” ‘The document variously claims, for example, thal children raised in homosexual households are al greater risk of sexual involvement with a parent, of becoming homosexual and of developing social or psychological problems, slimy Setater, a spokesperson with Focus on the Family in Vancouver, said the whole issue of homosexual parenting has been driven more by the "gay agenda” than by concern for children's, welfare. “The studies from our U.S. office show there is an incredibly well-documented need for female and male children to have both male and female parents,” Sclaler said, “So right there, that flies in the opposite direction of the claim that there is no evidence of a detrimental effect from having same-sex parents. Bul Gil Alexander-Moegerie, a co-founder of Focus on the Family who's familiar with the wark of the Family Research Council, said itis the group he helped found, and not the academies, that has an agenda “Any of the so-called research (the council) produces is highly suspect and al times, outright laughable,” said Alexander-Moegerle, who left Focus on the Family in 1987 after 10 years as its, vice-president“Their view is that gays and lesbians are depraved individuals who are a corrupting influence on a community, especially children, but they don't base that on objective scienco because they know it doesn't support their view. Dr. Gary Sanders, director of the University of Calgary's human sexuality program, is also familiar with the Family Research Council and its work. *None of what they say is true. They parade themselves as a research institute but they're not, they're lobbyists. "What they do is fund or generate reports, not research, that support their belief system, They selectively choose small pieces of larger studies, oflen taken completely aut af context, to support a particular point of view they have." ‘Sanders said all the research done by academies such as Palterson has been subjected to a standardized, peer-review process that would screen aut any flawed or biased work, “if the research wasn't done in a standard, objective, methodologically acceptable manner, then it ‘wouldn't bo credible, it wouldn't pass the peer review and it wouldn't be published,” said Sanders. He added that the views of groups such as Focus on the Family on homosexual parenting are roughly equivalent to the views of the Flat Earth Society, a group that continues to insist the Earth is fat In justifying his decision not to allow foster children to be placed with homosexual parents, Oberg Used the argument that because gays themselves say they are persecuted, that means they can't provide the “optimal environment" for a foster child, Joan Laird, a social work professor and co-editor of the 1996 book Gays and Lesbians and Couples and Families, was astounded by that argument. "Does that mean thal you don't place children with non-white parents, or native families, or handicapped parents, ar anyone who is discriminated against?" said Laird, a parenting expert ‘who recently retired from the Smith College Schoo! of Social Work in Northampton, Mass. "That's just crazy logic. Whether someone might be discriminated against is no reason nat to place children with them. That's Dark Ages thinking.”Lairel and Sanders both acknowledged that children could be teased or bullied or treated differently by teachers because they are from a homosexual-led family, "But that would be no different than being a Jewish kid in a fundamentalist Christian town or the only black kid in a totally white town,” Sanders said. Laird said in spite of those kinds of experiences, children fram homasexual families still tend to turn out normal, "When you look at the long-term results of being reared in a gay or lesbian family, research so far has shown that there isn't any significant difference on either psychological ar sociological measures of these children," Laird said Palterson said she hopes that during Alberta's debate over homosexual foster parents, one important thing isn't forgotten: "There are huge numbers of children who are languishing in institutional settings who would really benefit from living in a warm, loving home, no matter what, the sexual orientation of the parents.” A QUESTION OF PARENTING ‘The Issue: A decision by Social Services Minister Lyle Oberg to deny foster children to homosexual people. What's News: Two University of Alberta academics and the Edmonton lesbian woman who was denied foster children prepared a report - in response to a challenge by Oberg - which examined 40 years of academic research. The conclusion of the report, that there is no evidence to show homosexuals are bad parents, is echoed by leading North American experts on child development and parenting vino were interviewed by The Journal Credit: CHARLES RUSNELL, Journal Staff Writer, THE EDMONTON JOURNAL