Here is what this study did: It asked a self-selected group of lesbian mothers how their kids are doing. "Great!" they said. Their children are doing so fine, in fact, that even when lesbian families fall apart, the study concludes these mothers report no ill effects on their children's emotional well-being. "Within the lesbian family sample no ... differences were found ... between offspring whose mothers were still together and offspring whose mothers were separated."
Given what we know about the effects of divorce and family transitions on children, this "no difference" result is improbable in the extreme. We cannot know for sure, but could we have here a self-selected sample of highly motivated women anxious to validate their own mothering, and to further the great civil rights cause of the century?
I know there are lesbians who are good and caring mothers. The research shows this, just as it shows there are other single mothers who are good mothers.
But why is it that 50 years into this debate we still have no research that looks at a nationally representative sample of children raised by two lesbians and follows them into adulthood and compares how they fare? And why do we lack even one single study, based on even non-representative samples, that looks at how children raised by two gay men fare?
And how can educated people continue to make the claim the science has disproven the advantages of dual-gender parenting, when the actual scientific data is so weak?