Gay and lesbian families are more accepted by Americans than those headed up by single moms, a new Pew Research Center survey of 2,691 people finds. Under the broad category of “nontraditional families,” gays and single parents — generally referred to as DESTROYING AMERICA by your Perkins and Donohues — are always thrown under the bus ahead of “traditional families,” where mom and dad are raising 2.4 perfect children.
The survey found that when it comes to opinions overall on non-traditional families, such as those with gay and lesbian parents, single mothers, and unmarried parents, the country is split three ways: a third of Americans (dubbed Acceptors by Pew) are comfortable with a wide variety of family situations, a third (Rejectors) consider non-traditional arrangements to be damaging to the country’s social fabric, while the final third (Skeptics) are mixed in their views — approving of some arrangements, but not others.
[…] The vast majority of Acceptors and Skeptics believe gay and lesbian families are at least OK — and might even bring something positive to society. But single mothers are less accepted, the poll found. That’s where Acceptors and Skeptics differ the most, says Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center. “If you took out the question about single mothers, there would be only two groups: Acceptors and Rejectors,” Taylor says. While 98 percent of Acceptors think there’s nothing wrong with women raising their children alone, 99 percent of Skeptics and 98 percent of Rejectors believe that’s bad for society. (The survey only asked about single mothers, not single fathers.)
So how come gays are suddenly (a brighter) beacon of good families than they were just 10 years ago? Because when you’ve got two daddies or two mommies, you’ve still go two parents, which is always better than one, apparently.
Frederick
This obviously depends on the region of the country. I know that my partner and I, who are legally married residents of the Bay Area in CA, were attempting to obtain guardianship of my 18- month-old granddaughter who lives in North Florida. Everyone we dealt with here in CA was very open to the idea of two men raising a toddler. However, when it came down to the final decision by Florida’s Child Protective Services they decided it would be better to leave her with a drug addicted father and a prostitute mother then to have her raised by two gay men who don’t have any sort of criminal records, a nice home, and solid incomes.
rusk
Love that picture…so cuuute!! Too bad I won’t look as good as that couple by the time I have kids. Lol
ron
Ugh! Kids! Wake me when it’s over!
fuzz
Just another sign of the firmly entrenched belief that women are worth less than men. Bet if the survey had included fathers, there wouldn’t have been a 99% disapproval rating on them as single parents.
Frederick: That bites about your granddaughter. Just another example of backwards thinking.
Tommy
@fuzz: What’s sexist about it? Gay parents can be two women. In fact more lesbians have children together than gay men. Don’t know why the headline and picture refers only to gay men having children. I have nothing against single parents because a lot of times people aren’t single parents by choice because the other partner leaves and takes no interest in the child unfortunately. But in an ideal world, it’s better to have two parents of whatever gender so that one parent can be there for the child at all times. Nothing sexist about that.
Tommy
@Frederick: But was that really homophobic? I think there would be the same result if you were in a heterosexual relationship. The system does favor the biological parents. The system wants to give them a chance to clean up their lives and turn themselves around and give them a chance to hold onto their kids and not strip them of their children never to see them again. Everyone deserves a second chance even drug addicts and prostitutes.
Michael W.
I want to wreck that home and steal the hottie with the green t-shirt. His man better watch out.
The sane Francis
America is all about appearances. 2 men or women having a kid, well, they are a family, and we all know how America is ALLLLL about family values! But a single parent, they aren’t a “real” family in the eyes of many. Or the single parent must have had a horrible relationship with their previous partner, and thus are not equipped to have a kid, they are irresponsible, make bad decisions and don’t know how to handle a close relationship. A kid is deprived if they only have one parent instead of two. It’s all bullshit.
Silver
I don’t understand the idea that a child in a single-parent home doesn’t have two parents. Not all single moms are widows, and not all single dads are widowers. Besides, one parent who is responsible and alone is a lot better than two parents, only ONE of whom is responsible, and the other of which is an abusive alcoholic. People’s snap judgment of single parents really pisses me off.
fuzz
@Tommy: Without seeing numbers for the acceptance of single male parents, the implication I see here is that a single woman is some kind of tramp or loser who can’t get her crap together enough to find a guy to support her. It’s old-fashioned thinking, but obviously still very prevalent… Why is the disapproval rating so high in two of the three categories? ‘Unwed/single mother’ has very negative connotations in our society, and it’s got little to do with there being only one parent in the picture. Yeah, I’m bitter. I was raised by a single mom and I know what she went through. Nobody has the right to state or imply that my mother is worth less as a parent because there was only one of her, and especially not because she’s female. She did the job of both parents, and she did it well.
The other implication here, evidenced by the fact that single male parents were not even an option on the survey, is that men can’t be parents without being attached to a woman, which is sexism against men, and something that I also find disturbing.
josh
my partner and I had our civil union [I use that term because it was non-religous in a registry office] in 2007, he is an American, I am from the UK, we elected to move to the US as he has 3 companies, it soon became apparent despite my offers of employment I was not welcome to stay, we left closing the 2 companies there, loosing staff and moved to New Zealand which is fine but its not home. I think its time “The Land of the Free” lives up to its name by being non-judgemental and take the stance that as long as someone is contributing to society they are should be welcomed.
As an educated guy [couple] in our mid 40’s its so bad to be made to feel second or even thrid class people living in a great country now, but its not our home. Lets hope for swift changes.
drums
DON’T BE FOOLED—the people who hate independent or sexually liberated or poor women are often the same people who hate the LGBT community. Don’t let them divide our support for each other in our fights against oppression.