Gay parents influence their child's orientation
Image via WikipediaA study due out next month has found that children raised by homosexual parents are far more likely to identify as homosexual themselves.
Walter Schumm, a family studies professor at Kansas State University, told AOL News that he questioned the conviction - ironclad in both popular culture and the academic world - that parents could not influence their children's sexual orientation, while being able to influence so many other aspects of their lives.
"I just want to know the truth about something," he said.
In the abstract of the study, Schumm concluded that research conducted by pro-family leader Paul Cameron in 2006, although widely lambasted by media and professionals, accurately concluded that homosexuals are more likely to raise homosexual children.
The study, an analysis of previous research, attempted to skew the results in favor of popular opinion, but still found Cameron's conclusion solid.
"Despite numerous attempts to bias the results in favour of the null hypothesis and allowing for up to 20 (of 63, 32%) coding errors, Cameron's (2006) hypothesis that gay and lesbian parents would be more likely to have gay, lesbian, bisexual or unsure (of sexual orientation) sons and daughters was confirmed," it states.
According to the abstract, between 16 and 57 percent of children with gay or lesbian parents were found to adopt homosexual identities. Daughters of lesbian couples were found to be particularly affected, with 33 to 57 percent identifying as lesbian.
Schumm's paper will be published in the November edition of the Journal of Biosocial Science.
News of the study has picked up little traction in the media except for left-leaning blogs and minor outlets who have accused AOL of "showcas[ing] anti-gay bad science."
