Focus on the Family (and vicariously the National Organization for Marriage) has revealed just how inane their arguments against same-sex adoption are. In a post at CitizenLink this week, FOTF’s director of family formation studies, Glenn T. Stanton, tries to make the case that children of same-sex couples are “not problem-free” because girls are more likely to consider a same-sex encounter:
According to a study published late last year in the Archive of Sexual Behavior, girls raised by lesbian mothers are seven times more likely to consider a same-sex encounter, and twice as likely to identify as lesbian or bisexual than those raised by heterosexual parents. They are also seven times more likely to use “the “morning after” pill.
“We already know that girls who grow up without fathers are more likely to be sexually adventurous, and it has a lot to do with being fatherless,” Stanton explained. “Two lesbians can be the most loving moms in the world, but they can’t give a girl the kind of positive attention and other-gendered affirmation she needs from a dad.”
Not only is he regurgitating the debunked “fatherless” meme, he’s relying on a self-reinforcing argument. Stanton opposes same-sex couples having families because it might lead to more same-sex couples having families, and somehow that’s a “problem.” He seems to think it’s downright shocking that a child might grow up exposed to a loving and committed same-sex couple and actually feel comfortable considering such a possibility for herself, even though she’s no more likely to be gay than a child of opposite-sex parents. In fact, Stanton is contributing to the stigma that is actually the only thing that sets apart the life experiences of children raised by same-sex couples.
FOTF seems to rely on a shared assumption that anything gay is bad, but with a growing majority supporting marriage equality nationwide, this notion is quickly evaporating. Not only are these anti-gay conservatives admitting pure animus against LGBT people, they’re conceding that they don’t have any better arguments than archaic gender norms and petulant objection. Of course, they never did.
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