LA Times quotes UO sociologist on children of same-sex parents

In an article on same-sex couples who raise families, a UO sociologist says recent research confirms that grown children in those families are indistinguishable from young adults raised in opposite-sex homes.

Ryan Light said a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine supports a conclusion already widely held among researchers that youngsters who grow up with same-sex parents do as well and are as happy as other children.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Light said the study corroborated the “overwhelming scientific consensus that children of LGBTQ families experience no differences relative to children raised in heterosexual families on outcomes related to mental and emotional well-being and education, among others.”

Light was not involved in the research, which was carried out by psychiatrist Nanette Gartrell. She started recruiting families for the study in 1987 and followed the children’s development into young adulthood.

For the full article, see “Researchers find no difference between kids raised by two moms and kids raised by mom and dad” in the Los Angeles Times. The story also appeared in PinkNews.

Light is an associate professor of sociology at the UO. His research focuses on social connectivity and social structure.