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Argument: Children raised by same-sex parents are not more likely to have same-sex orientations themselves.

Issue Report: Gay adoption

Support

“Affidavit – United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts” Michael Lamb, Ph.D. 2009: “Children raised by same-sex parents are not more likely to have same-sex orientations themselves.”

“Sexual Orientation and Adolescents” Pediatrics. 2004: “There is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation.”

“Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation” American Psychological Association. 2009: “There are no empirical studies or peer-reviewed research that support theories attributing same-sex sexual orientation to family dysfunction or trauma (Bell et al., 1981; Bene, 1965; Freund & Blanchard, 1983; Freund & Pinkava, 1961; Hooker, 1969; McCord et al., 1962; D. K. Peters & Cantrell, 1991; Siegelman, 1974, 1981; Townes et al., 1976).”

“Sexual Orientation” American Psychiatric Association. 2010: “Homosexuality was once thought to be the result of troubled family dynamics or faulty psychological development. Those assumptions are now understood to have been based on misinformation and prejudice. No specific psychosocial or family dynamic cause for homosexuality has been identified, including histories of childhood sexual abuse. Sexual abuse does not appear to be more prevalent in children who grow up to identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, than in children who identify as heterosexual.”

“Sexual Hormones and the Brain: An Essential Alliance for Sexual Identity and Sexual Orientation” Pediatric Neuroendocrinology. 2010: “The fetal brain develops during the intrauterine period in the male direction through a direct action of testosterone on the developing nerve cells, or in the female direction through the absence of this hormone surge. In this way, our gender identity (the conviction of belonging to the male or female gender) and sexual orientation are programmed or organized into our brain structures when we are still in the womb. There is no indication that social environment after birth has an effect on gender identity or sexual orientation.”