Mark Regnerus found that lesbians' kids fare worse, but critics blast his methods. "Liberty run amok can create extraordinary personal disaster," he says.
BuzzFeed
Anna North
http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/lesbian-parenting-is-conservative-stars-newest-taRegnerus's most recent study, published this month in the journal Social Science Research, found that the children of parents who had ever had a same-sex relationship differed in important ways from kids of married, straight parents. Those whose moms ever had a relationship with another woman, especially, were significantly more likely to be unemployed as adults than children of still-married straight parents; they were also more likely to seek treatment for mental illness, and to report having sex with someone else while married or cohabiting. This is potentially incendiary stuff — or, for Regnerus, business as usual.
Last year, Regnerus caused a stir by arguing that casual sex had driven the "price" of sexual intercourse down, keeping young women from getting the commitment they wanted. And in 2009, he urged women to consider getting married in their early twenties because "marriage actually works best as a formative institution, not an institution you enter once you think you're fully formed." His research has been championed by a variety of conservative groups. But he said his research — including the same-sex parenting study — isn't political.
