Same-sex couples: Marriage and family Gary J. Gates Williams Distinguished Scholar

Social and legal change

Marriage and partnering Want to marry (among unmarried) Gen pop: 46% Lesbian: 58% Gay men: 56% LGBT: 3 most important reasons to marry Love Companionship Lifelong commitment

Demographics SS couples evenly divided by gender but 2/3rds of married SS couples are female Those in SS couples are younger compared to those in DS couples but married SS older than unmarried SS and DS SS couples more inter-racial/ethnic compared to DS couples, but married SS more homogomous than unmarried SS

Parenting

Same-sex parenting: research findings Purposive sampling studies: Parental gender composition and sexual orientation not associated with negative child outcomes Population-based studies: Child outcomes Variation in family transitions Parental gender composition No direct relationship

Scholarly consensus? Are we witnessing the emergence of a new family form that provides a context for children that is equivalent to the traditional marriage-based family? Even after an extensive reading of the same-sex parenting literature, the author cannot offer a high confidence, data-based ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no’’ response to this question. Marks (2012) …the social science consensus is clear: children raised by same-sex parents fare just as well as children raised by opposite-sex parents. ASA (2013)

Consensus: more research Large population-based longitudinal samples Sample variation in studies to explore differences by: Parental gender composition Race/ethnicity SES Family formation/transitions

Ongoing debate/disagreement Affects of family structure v. family transitions on child outcomes Can/should existing research inform debates about legal rights of same-sex couples to marry and parent?

Same-sex marriage: the court …Indiana’s government thinks that straight couples tend to be sexually irresponsible, producing unwanted children by the carload, and so must be pressured (in the form of governmental encouragement of marriage through a combination of sticks and carrots) to marry, but that gay couples, unable as they are to produce children wanted or unwanted, are model parents—model citizens really—so have no need for marriage. Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure. (Judge Posner, Baskin v. Bogan 2014)

Beyond marriage debate Conduct research in less volatile and scrutinizing environment Integrate same-sex couples and families into marriage and family scholarship Consider ways in which same-sex couple and family inclusion can enhance ability to address existing marriage and family theory and scholarship