Originally Posted by
Libby
I don't believe they are different enough to hinder a same-sex couple from raising a perfectly fine child. Studies and stats have born that out.
Men and women are physically and even, somewhat, psychologically different, it's true, and I understand the "balance" you are looking at, but the qualities that make a good parent can exist, even in a balanced way, in a same sex coupling, as well.
I saw some statistics, awhile back, that showed that single mothers had a lot of difficulties, in raising their children. A lot of school dropouts and delinquency. Strangely, though, single fathers did not have those kinds of problems and their kids were well within the average range. What researchers finally determined was that economic status was actually the important variable, and the differences had little or nothing to do with "gender". Women, usually, don't make as much money as men (even still), and therefore, they and their children had all of the problems of poverty...poor housing, poor schools, lack of supervision, etc.
Anyway, bottom line, I think we are moving away from the idea that every family, to be ideal, must be the traditional one man/one woman model. We are finding that families of all kinds can nurture and provide for the needs of children. We need to recognize those "other" families as legitimate, as well.