Study: Gay Parents Not Destroying the Chance Their Kids Will Become Over-Achieving Bookworms

We already know gay parents are not, in fact, destroying the chances their children will lead normal lives. A new study also shows gay parents aren’t hurting their kids’ GPA, either.

Have two mommies, two daddies, or one of each really isn’t going to figure in to whether you’re going to make honor roll, or something, relays Stanford University.

In a study published this month in the journal Demography, [Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld] concludes that children being raised by same-sex couples have nearly the same educational achievement as children raised by married heterosexual couples. By mining data from the 2000 Census, Rosenfeld was able to figure out the rates at which children in all types of families repeated a grade during elementary or middle school. According to his findings, nearly 7 percent of children raised by heterosexual married couples were held back a year, while about 9.5 percent of children living with adults identifying themselves as same-sex partners repeated a grade.

The difference between the groups pretty much vanishes when taking into account that the heterosexual couples were slightly more educated and wealthier than most gay parents, Rosenfeld said. “The census data show that having parents who are the same gender is not in itself any disadvantage to children,” he said. “Parents’ income and education are the biggest indicators of a child’s success. Family structure is a minor determinant.”

So parents: Stop being poor, not gay.