Same sex couples are steadily becoming more open about their relationships. One consequence of this growing openness is that more couples of the same sex are choosing to have children and infertility treatment centers are increasingly faced with requests for assistance in creating these families. The aim of this review is to address new trends in reproduction in same sex couples, to consider the quality of parenting in lesbian mother and gay father households, and to review the literature on the development of children raised by same sex couples. The current literature on these families is limited by small sample sizes and a predominance of studies of lesbian mothers and their children, with few studies of gay fathers and their children. A recent study of adolescents living with same sex parents recruited from a large national sample supports the notion that adolescents raised by same sex couples are doing well psychologically and are not more likely to be homosexual. The authors concluded that it was the quality of parenting, not parental sexual orientation that accounted for developmental differences. The literature supports the notion that children of lesbian mothers and gay fathers are not more likely to become homosexual and are not measurably different from children raised by heterosexual parents in terms of personality development, psychological development, and gender identity. Larger longitudinal studies of same sex parents, particularly gay men, are needed, including those who choose to become parents through the use of assisted reproduction.

outcomes for children with gay and lesbian parents with outcomes for children with heterosexual parents has found that children raised by same-sex couples Same-sex parenting is parenting of children by same-sex couples generally consisting of homosexual or bisexual people who are often in civil partnerships, domestic partnerships, civil unions, or same-sex marriages. Opponents of same-sex parenting argue that it has an adverse impact on children. However, scientific research consistently shows that lesbian and homosexual parents are as capable and f Same-sex parenting is parenting of children by same-sex couples generally consisting of homosexual or bisexual people who are often in civil partnerships, domestic partnerships, civil unions, or same-sex marriages. Opponents of same-sex parenting argue that it has an adverse impact on children. However, scientific research consistently shows that lesbian and homosexual parents are as capable and fit as heterosexual parents and that children reared by lesbian and… The overall methodological sophistication and quality of studies in this domain have increased over the years, as would be expected for any new area of empirical inquiry. More recent research has reported data from probability and community-based convenience samples, has used more rigorous assessment techniques, and has been published in highly respected and widely cited developmental psychology journals, including Child Development and Developmental Psychology. Data are increasingly available from prospective studies. In addition, whereas early study samples consisted mainly of children originally born into heterosexual relationships that subsequently dissolved when one parent came out as gay or lesbian, recent samples are more likely to include children conceived within a same-sex relationship or adopted in infancy by a same-sex couple. Thus, they are less likely to confound the effects of having a sexual minority parent with the consequences of divorce. A 2002 review of the literature identified 20 studies examining outcomes among children raised by gay or lesbian parents and found that these children did not systematically differ from those raised by heterosexual parents on any of the studied outcomes. In a 2009 affidavit filed in the case Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Michael Lamb, a professor of psychology and head of Department of Social and Developmental Psychology at Cambridge University, stated: New Family Structures Study: Published by Mark Regnerus in 2012, this study was widely discredited by researchers, and which claimed to show that children of gay and lesbian parents were adversely affected by their upbringing by parents in same-sex relationships. Homosexual parenting in animals