Mr. Muehlenberg on same-sex parenting

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2009/02/11/children-as-guinea-pigs/

Mr. Bill Muehlenberg has published at his blog a good post against same-sex adoption. (Remember that today is the last day for written submissions to the New South Wales Legislative Council inquiry into adoption by same-sex couples—see here.) Mr. Muehlenberg asks

How will a man raised by two men know how to relate to a woman? Or how will a man raised by two women know how to relate to men? Thus the Beatles were wrong: love is not all you need, at least when it comes to parenting. As two family experts point out: “The two most loving mothers in the world can’t be a father to a little boy. Love can’t equip mothers to teach a little boy how to be a man. Likewise, the two most loving men can’t be a mother to a child.”

They continue, “Love does little to help a man teach a little girl how to be a woman. Can you imagine two men guiding a young girl through her first menstrual cycle or helping her through the awkwardness of picking out her first bra? Such a situation might make for a funny television sitcom but not a very good real-life situation for a young girl.”

Mr. Muehlenberg also refers to empirical research into the effects of same-sex parenting on children although, frustratingly, he does not provide citations.

And if anyone’s wondering just how many children are already being raised by same-sex parents in Australia, I noticed the following interesting things in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ recently released A Picture of the Nation: the Statistician's Report on the 2006 Census:

Children living with same-sex couples

In 2006, approximately 3,200 children were living with same-sex couples. Most of thesechildren were living with same-sex female couples (89%).

Over half the children living with same-sex couples were reported to be step children (57%), while 38% were reported to be the natural or adopted children of both parents.

Examination of same-sex data from the census may have some limitations. These include the reluctance of some people to report being in a same-sex de facto partnership and the lack of knowledge that same-sex relationships would be counted as such in the census.
(from the article Living arrangements: Children’s living arrangements, p. 77,
http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/LookupAttach/2070.0Publication29.01.0914/$File/20700_Children.pdf)

(As for the number of so-called same-sex de facto couples:

Number of same-sex de facto couples in Australia: about 27,000; as a proportion of all de facto couples: about 3.4 per cent
http://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2008/12/ms-horin-on-unintended-consequences-of.html)

For my own arguments against this insanity see here.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
13.II.2009 A.D.