tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/gay-couples-12952/articlesGay couples – The Conversation2017-09-06T20:15:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/823132017-09-06T20:15:17Z2017-09-06T20:15:17ZFactCheck: are children ‘better off’ with a mother and father than with same-sex parents?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183709/original/file-20170829-1542-1u356h6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of the studies on this question examine the outcomes for children in same-sex parented families where both parents are women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<span class="caption">Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, interviewed on Sky News, August 13, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfu18kSIDqI">YouTube</a></span>
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<blockquote>
<p>Optimally, you’ve got the input from both [a mother and a father] and the children brought up in those circumstances are, as a cohort, better off than those who are not.</p>
<p>… whether it’s in terms of health outcomes, mental health, physical health, whether it’s in terms of employment prospects, in terms of how this is generated from one generation to another, the social science evidence is overwhelmingly in one direction in this regard. <strong>– Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, excerpts from an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfu18kSIDqI">interview on Sky News</a>, August 13, 2017.</strong> </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Public campaigns for and against same-sex marriage have been heightened by the Turnbull government’s plan to conduct a $122 million <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/home/ABS+Media+Statements+-+Australian+Marriage+Law+Postal+Survey">voluntary postal survey</a> asking the nation whether same-sex couples should be able to marry under Australian law.</p>
<p>Discussing his opposition to same-sex marriage during <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfu18kSIDqI">an interview</a> on Sky News, Liberal MP Kevin Andrews said children who are brought up with a mother and a father “are, as a cohort, better off than those who are not”.</p>
<p>Andrews also said the “social science evidence is overwhelmingly in one direction in this regard”.</p>
<p>Let’s look at the research.</p>
<h2>Checking the source</h2>
<p>When asked for sources to support his statements, a spokesperson for Kevin Andrews told The Conversation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mr Andrews wrote a book called “<a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6105053">Maybe I Do</a>”. You might also like to look at the 2011 report, <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/law/news/docs_pdfs_images/2011/Sep/FKS-ResearchReport.pdf">For Kids’ Sake</a>, by Professor Patrick Parkinson of the University of Sydney and studies by Douglas Allen (2015) in Canada and Paul Sullins (2015) in the US.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>Kevin Andrews’ assertion that children who are brought up with a mother and father are, “as a cohort, better off than those who are not” is not supported by research evidence.</p>
<p>The majority of research on this topic shows that children or adolescents raised by same-sex parents fare equally as well as those raised by opposite-sex parents on a wide range of social, emotional, health and academic outcomes. </p>
<h2>Response to Kevin Andrews’ sources</h2>
<p>First of all, let’s look at the sources provided by Andrews’ spokesperson to support his statements. A summary of Kevin Andrews’ book on the National Library of Australia website says it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… reviews the evidence on the benefits of marriage for society, children, and adults. It argues that healthy, stable, and happy marriages are the optimal institution for promoting individual well being and healthy societies. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s true that there is a large body of evidence to show that stability in marriage and family life is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3091824/">beneficial for children</a>, particularly in early childhood. Some research has shown that these benefits are associated with <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/Cohabitation,%20marriage,%20relationship%20stability%20and%20child%20outcomes%20July%202011.pdf">higher average income and education levels</a> among married couples, rather than marriage itself. </p>
<p>But these studies didn’t involve comparisons between opposite-sex and same-sex married couples, so they do not defend the argument that heterosexual marriage leads to better outcomes for children than same-sex marriage. In fact, some research suggests same-sex marriage would <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-11202-004">provide benefits</a> for children being raised in these families.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184623/original/file-20170905-14281-res10c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Patrick Parkinson’s report, <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/law/news/docs_pdfs_images/2011/Sep/FKS-ResearchReport.pdf">For Kid’s Sake</a>, links rising rates of divorce, family conflict and instability in parental relationships with increasing psychological distress among young people in Australia. One of Parkinson’s conclusions was that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the most stable, safe and nurturing environment for children is when their parents are, and remain, married to one another.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074431/">studies that support these assertions</a>. This research supports the importance of family stability, quality relationships between parents and children, and the need for access to socioeconomic resources – but not the need for parents to be heterosexual.</p>
<p>Douglas Allen’s <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01494929.2015.1033317">2015 paper</a> is a critical, but not systematic, review of more than 60 studies relating to same-sex parenting and/or child outcomes. This paper does not present findings related to child outcomes.</p>
<p>Rather, Allen says that, due to sampling bias and small sample sizes in the existing body of work, there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence demonstrating that children raised by same-sex couples do better or worse than children raised by heterosexual couples.</p>
<p>Andrews’ spokesperson also pointed to 2015 research from Paul Sullins. Sullins’ <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2500537">2015 analysis</a> of data from the US National Health Interview Survey indicated that children raised by same-sex parents were more than twice as likely to experience emotional problems than those raised by heterosexual, married parents who were biologically related to their children. But this analysis <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/using-pseudoscience-to-undermine-same-sex-parents/385604/">was</a> <a href="https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/bogus-versus-extremely-low-quality/">criticised</a> for not taking into account the stability of the family environment.</p>
<p>The author combined all children in same-sex families into one category, while placing children in opposite-sex families into separate categories – including different categories for step-parents and single parents, for example. So the comparison made was between <em>all</em> same-sex parented families, and a <em>selection</em> of <em>stable</em> heterosexual families. </p>
<h2>Research on outcomes for children in same-sex parented families</h2>
<p>Now let’s look at other studies that have been conducted around the world. Many of these studies examine the outcomes for children in same-sex parented families where both parents are women. There has been comparatively little research on families in which both parents are men. It can be difficult to achieve adequate sample sizes of children raised in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-families-with-2-dads-raise-their-kids-77386">two-father families</a>, given the small number of these families. There is no research showing that children raised by gay fathers fare worse than other children. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/Abstract/2016/04000/Same_Sex_and_Different_Sex_Parent_Households_and.1.aspx">study published in 2016</a> using data from the <a href="http://www.childhealthdata.org/learn/NSCH">US National Survey of Children’s Health</a> for <a href="http://childhealthdata.org/docs/drc/2011-12-fast-facts.pdf">2011-12</a> compared outcomes for children aged six to 17 years in 95 female same-sex parented families and 95 opposite-sex parented families. </p>
<p>The study found no differences in outcomes for children raised by lesbian parents compared to heterosexual parents on a range of outcomes including general health, emotional difficulties, coping behaviour and learning behaviour. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184621/original/file-20170905-9760-1di0o1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>A paper published for the American Sociological Association in 2014 <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-014-9329-6">reviewed 10 years’ of scientific literature</a> on child well-being in same-sex parented families in the US. The literature review covered 40 original published studies, including numerous credible and methodologically sound social science studies, many of which drew on nationally representative data. </p>
<p>The authors concluded there was clear consensus in scientific literature that children raised by same-sex couples fared as well as children raised by opposite-sex couples. This applied for a range of well-being measures, including: </p>
<ul>
<li>academic performance</li>
<li>cognitive development</li>
<li>social development</li>
<li>psychological health</li>
<li>early sexual activity, and </li>
<li>substance abuse.</li>
</ul>
<p>The authors noted that differences in child well-being were largely due to socioeconomic circumstances and family stability. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00678.x/abstract">meta-analysis published in the Journal of Marriage and Family in 2010</a> combined the results of 33 studies to assess how the gender of parents affected children. The authors found the strengths typically associated with married mother-father families appeared to the same degree in families with two mothers and potentially in those with two fathers. </p>
<p>The meta-analysis found no evidence that children raised by same-sex couples fared worse than children raised by opposite-sex couples on a range of outcomes including:</p>
<ul>
<li>security of attachment to parents</li>
<li>behavioural problems</li>
<li>self perceptions of cognitive and physical competence, and</li>
<li>interest, effort and success in school.</li>
</ul>
<p>This review included studies from Europe, the UK and the US. The authors said that scholars had achieved </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a rare degree of consensus that unmarried lesbian parents are raising children who develop at least as well as their counterparts with married heterosexual parents. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Australia, <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-635">a large study</a> published in the peer-reviewed BMC Public Health Journal in 2014 (and of which I was one of five co-authors) surveyed 315 parents representing 500 children. 80% of children had a female same-sex attracted parent, while 18% had a male same-sex attracted parent. </p>
<p>The results did support <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0012711">previous</a> <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02646830412331298350">research</a> showing that stigma related to a parent’s sexual orientation is negatively associated with mental health and well-being.</p>
<p>But, overall, the study found children and adolescents raised by same-sex parents in Australia fared as well as children of opposite-sex parents, and better on measures of general behaviour, general health and family cohesion.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpc.13171/abstract">follow up paper published in 2016</a> found there was no difference between children raised in female same-sex parent households and children raised in male same-sex parent households.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184622/original/file-20170905-26556-1nxdxli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Further work from the same project reported on surveys and interviews with adolescents raised by same-sex parents. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cch.12180/full">This study</a> (of which I was one of four co-authors) did find that some adolescents with same-sex parents reported experiencing anxiety relating to fear of discrimination, which was linked to poorer well-being.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359105311403522">US study published in 2011</a> found adolescents raised by lesbian mothers were more likely to have reported occasional substance use, but not more likely to have reported heavy use, than other adolescents.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1353%2Fdem.0.0112?LI=true">2010 analysis</a> of data from the 2000 US census found that children raised by same-sex couples had no fundamental deficits in making normal progress through school compared to children raised by opposite-sex couples. </p>
<p>When parents’ socio-economic status and the characteristics of the students were accounted for, the educational outcomes for children of same-sex couples couldn’t be distinguished with statistical certainty from children of heterosexual married couples.</p>
<h2>Analysing studies that show different results</h2>
<p>Some studies have indicated that adults raised by same-sex parents fare worse on some educational, social or emotional outcomes. But the <em>majority</em> of research does not support this. There are also studies that have been published and later discredited, but continue to be used as references.</p>
<p>The 2012 US <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610%20on%20the%20psychological%20impact%20of%20same-sex%20parenting">New Family Structures Study</a>, also known as the “Regnerus study”, is <a href="http://family.org.au/the-kids-aren-t-all-right-new-family-structures-and-the-no-differences-claim/">often</a> <a href="http://www.marriagealliance.com.au/mark_regnerus_how_different_are_the_adult_children_of_parents_who_have_same_sex_relationships_findings_from_the_new_family_structures_study_social_science_research_41_2012_752_770">cited</a> by groups opposed to same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The study looked at outcomes for adults aged 18-39. It compared outcomes for adults with a parent who had had a same-sex relationship, with outcomes for adults raised by still-married, heterosexual couples who were biologically related to their children. It showed the adults with a gay or lesbian parent or parents fared worse on a range of social, educational and health outcomes. But this study has been <a href="http://www.hrc.org/blog/michigan-judge-delivers-devastating-blow-to-junk-scientist-regnerus">very</a> <a href="http://www.hrc.org/blog/ut-austin-denounces-mark-regnerus-anti-gay-study">widely</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/10/new-criticism-of-regnerus-study-on-parenting-study/?utm_term=.25f7a821264a">criticised</a>. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.asanet.org/documents/ASA/pdfs/ASA_March_2015_Supreme_Court_Marriage_Equality_Amicus_Brief.pdf">a brief</a> filed in the US Supreme Court in 2015, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sociological_Association">American Sociological Association</a> said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Regnerus study … did not specifically examine children raised by same-sex parents, and provides no support for the conclusions that same-sex parents are inferior parents or that the children of same-sex parents experience worse outcomes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As outlined by the American Sociological Association, the study removed all divorced, single, and step-parent families from the heterosexual group, leaving only stable, married, heterosexual families as the comparison. In addition, Regnerus categorised children as having been raised by a parent in a same-sex relationship </p>
<blockquote>
<p>regardless of whether they were in fact raised by the parent … and regardless of the amount of time that they spent under the parent’s care.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A subsequent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/10/new-criticism-of-regnerus-study-on-parenting-study/?utm_term=.3bc3e975e063">reanalysis</a> of the data, using different criteria for categorising respondents, found the results <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X1500085X">inconclusive</a>, or suggestive that “adult children raised by same-sex two-parent families show a comparable adult profile to their peers raised by two-biological-parent families”.</p>
<h2>Strengths and weaknesses of evidence on outcomes for children</h2>
<p>The “gold standard” for research on child and family outcomes are studies that involve randomly selected, population-based samples. This has been difficult to achieve in research on same-sex parenting because many population-based studies don’t ask about parents’ sexual orientation. Even where they do ask, not all studies include a sample of children or adults raised by same-sex parents that is large enough to provide for reliable statistical analysis. </p>
<p>This has led to criticism of the quality of evidence on outcomes for children raised by same-sex parents, because most studies have relied on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenience_sampling">convenience</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics)#Voluntary_Sampling">volunteer</a> samples, which are not randomly selected, and so may include bias.</p>
<p>However, there are methodological limitations in all studies. And, as outlined earlier, recent analyses of population-based data sets have supported the finding that children or adolescents raised by same-sex couples do not experience poorer outcomes than other children. So there is no clear basis to the argument that convenience samples lead to “incorrect” findings due to bias. <strong>– Jennifer Power</strong></p>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p>This FactCheck gives a good broad overview of the research and scientific consensus in regard to child health and well-being in same-sex parent families. The studies included, on balance, represent the current understanding of academics and child health experts on child health and well-being outcomes in same-sex parent families. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nllfs.org/">National Lesbian Longitudinal Family Study</a> provides additional evidence to support the verdict of this FactCheck. As a well established and methodologically robust longitudinal study, the National Lesbian Longitudinal Family Study provides important additional insights.</p>
<p>In the Australian context, the <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/same-sex-parented-families-australia">2013 Australian Institute of Family Studies</a> review of same-sex parent families also supports the overall verdict of this FactCheck. </p>
<p>It should be noted that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691050701601702">research</a> has indicated that same-sex parent families experience stigma and discrimination, and when they do it can impact on child health and well-being.</p>
<p>Overall, however, the verdict in this FactCheck is appropriate based on current research. <strong>– Simon Crouch</strong> </p>
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<span class="caption">The Conversation FactCheck is accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network.</span>
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<p><em>The Conversation’s FactCheck unit is the first fact-checking team in Australia and one of the first worldwide to be accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network, an alliance of fact-checkers hosted at the Poynter Institute in the US. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-conversations-factcheck-granted-accreditation-by-international-fact-checking-network-at-poynter-74363">Read more here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Have you seen a “fact” worth checking? The Conversation’s FactCheck asks academic experts to test claims and see how true they are. We then ask a second academic to review an anonymous copy of the article. You can request a check at <a href="mailto:checkit@theconversation.edu.au">checkit@theconversation.edu.au</a>. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Power has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council, ACON and Relationships Australia for research work related to parenting. Jennifer was a co-author on two papers cited in this document, as disclosed in the text. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Crouch has previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Simon Crouch is a co-author on three papers cited in the article.</span></em></p>Discussing his opposition to same-sex marriage, Liberal MP Kevin Andrews said children who are brought up with a mother and father are ‘better off than those who are not’. Let’s look at the research.Jennifer Power, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/596802016-05-23T19:36:55Z2016-05-23T19:36:55ZHow we live now: Australian families at a glance<p><em>Our politicians talk a lot about “families”, but what do they really mean when they use this term? What does a modern Australian family look like and how does it compare with ten, 20 or even 30 years ago?</em></p>
<p><em>In this <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/changing-families">ten-part series</a>, we examine some major changes in family and relationships, and how that might in turn reshape law, policy and our idea of ourselves.</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=9697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=9697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=9697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=12186&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=12186&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123686/original/image-20160523-11017-ujle4i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=12186&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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What does a modern Australian family look like and how does it compare with 10, 20 or even 30 years ago?Fron Jackson-Webb, Deputy Editor and Senior Health EditorEmil Jeyaratnam, Data + Interactives Editor, The ConversationAmanda Dunn, Politics + Society EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/565412016-04-12T11:21:56Z2016-04-12T11:21:56ZChemsex: why is gay sex causing straight panic?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117100/original/image-20160401-6809-mfb8be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">1500, BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since last year’s release of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/03/chemsex-review-scary-but-valuable-documentary">Chemsex</a>, described by the Guardian as a “scary but valuable documentary”, the drug-fuelled sexual practices of some gay men have increasingly become a matter of heated debate, both within the gay community and in the national press. Most recently, papers have picked up on the story of barrister Henry Hendron, whose partner died last year after <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03q8tcz">overdosing on GHB at the couple’s London flat</a>. </p>
<p>But unfortunately neither last year’s documentary nor most news stories since have managed to suspend moral judgement when addressing the topic. “Chemsex” is not receiving the depth of critical analysis it badly needs. According to most accounts, including the one put forward by the documentary, gay men are driven to long sessions of “chemsex” because they are lonely and suffer from internalised homophobia. It is for those reasons, the narrative goes, that some of us end up pursuing human contact through “inauthentic” and “dangerous” means: “inauthentic” because intimacy is catalysed by drugs, and “dangerous” because it often involves unprotected sex.</p>
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<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/03/chemsex-review-scary-but-valuable-documentary">Chemsex</a> documentary is a textbook exercise in how straight culture is still obsessed with gay sex. It includes all the telling elements of a 1980s <a href="https://youtu.be/zPO5wausim8">sensationalist exposé on gay sex and AIDS</a>. There’s the crass and objectifying voyeurism: gratuitous sexual scenes punctuate confession-style interviews, the lives of those involved reduced to the kind of sex they do. There are the interviewers, never caught on camera and their questions never heard, so as not to trouble the “truth” granted by a disembodied “birds-eye” view of “reality”. There are the health specialists who voice the “actual truth” of the matter beyond the narratives put forward by participants themselves. </p>
<p>Further evidence of the ideology sustaining the film were the comments made by one of its (straight) directors. <a href="https://youtu.be/DILsNmmnyAE?t=18">During an interview</a> filmed at the 2015 BFI Film Festival, William Fairman unashamedly told the journalist how important it had been for them, the film directors, to “get in there and be the ones to uncover it”. This is a comment that sounds too much like a straight man “<a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/07/06/328466757/columbusing-the-art-of-discovering-something-that-is-not-new">columbusing</a>” – “discovering” something that is not new – a small part of gay culture, one which the gay community was already trying to address before the film’s supposed “reveal”. </p>
<p>As its way of contributing to the conversation, this year’s <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/flare">BFI Flare</a> added a series of shorts to its programme. These were screened together in a session called <a href="https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=chems">Chems</a>. Despite being filmed by gay directors, most of the shorts presented don’t do much more than replicating the same moralist tropes already present in Chemsex. <a href="https://vimeo.com/132838133">G-o'clock</a> is unable to convey anything about its characters other than their sex and drug habits. And <a href="http://www.chelwest.nhs.uk/services/hiv-sexual-health/clinics/56-dean-street">56 Dean Street</a>’s David Stuart describes chemsex as “a shameful thing” in the short documentary <a href="https://vimeo.com/154076116">Let’s Talk about Gay Sex and Drugs</a>. The majority of the films resort to uncritically reproducing familiar moralist platitudes on both gay sex and drug use.</p>
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<span class="caption">Les Meduses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival</span></span>
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<p>The one notable exception was Marc-Antoine Lemire’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/116894686">Les Meduses</a>, which uses a fragmented, nonlinear narrative style and rich visual metaphors to highlight the complexity of both “chemsex” and the inner lives of those involved in it. </p>
<h2>Why we transgress</h2>
<p>Why are we still gormlessly creating such one-sided and reductive narratives about gay sex? Sexual behaviours and sexualities are inseparable from the wider political landscapes in which they emerge and are enacted. Further, as sociologists, historians and philosophers have argued for a long time, at least since <a href="http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/powerknowledge">Foucault</a>, power always coexists with resistance, and morality with deviance. Transgression and risk-taking are “normal” in societies that regulate behaviour through social norms. It is <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OMRWM0-gSnMC&pg=PA29&dq=foucault+a+preface+to+transgression&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6q4jW74jMAhVhJpoKHQ6UBTIQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=foucault%20a%20preface%20to%20transgression&f=false">through the transgression</a> of limits that individuals affirm their own individuality and are able to become themselves.</p>
<p>Granted, such limit-experiences do flirt with death, even if to different degrees — from acceptable binge-drinking or bungee-jumping to “scandalous” long sessions of drug-taking and unprotected sex. Still, despite flirting with death, they are also life-affirming practices where individuals are able to reassert and know themselves as such.</p>
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<span class="caption">G o'clock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival</span></span>
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<p>Given this, some effort must be made to probe the wider social and political landscapes where chemsex takes place, before morals, before summary judgements, before uncritically reproducing older tropes of moral panic. Part of those landscapes must include the current state of the mainstream LGBT movement. Over the last few years, radical political and sexual agendas have been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/colin-walmsley/the-queers-left-behind-ho_b_7825158.html">“cleaned” out</a> in order to promote the figure of the “righteous gay” as the pathway towards morally-acceptable queer citizenship. In the past, queer politics used queer sex and sexuality to challenge the whole of society and its institutions. <a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Twilight-of-Equality-P469.aspx">Today</a>, the mainstream LGBT movement seems more concerned with <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004412">assimilating into existing institutions</a> such as marriage and the military, rather than challenging their existence. </p>
<p>The flip-side of the politics of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/terrorist-assemblages">this assimilation</a> is that they have been pursued <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33608000">at the expense</a> of a wider variety of queer sexualities, desires, pleasures, identities, and ways of being. </p>
<p>It’s in that context that I think – somewhat controversially – that chemsex emerges as a form of resistance. Chemsex is a way of surviving assimilation. If this “cleaning” of LGBT culture means the destruction of queerness or deviance in one’s identity, then risk-taking can become a way in which this identity can be reaffirmed and new forms of queer belonging rehearsed – even if only temporarily.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>João Florêncio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The drug-fuelled sexual practices of some gay men have increasingly become a matter of heated public debate – but there are problems with the way it is presented.João Florêncio, Lecturer in History of Modern and Contemporary Art and Visual Culture, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/325672014-10-15T19:25:35Z2014-10-15T19:25:35ZPope sets off a ‘gay earthquake’? No, the church has hardly moved<p>A <a href="http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/13/0751/03037.html">report of debate</a> from the first half of the extraordinary synod of Catholic bishops meeting in Rome has been described as a <a href="http://www.johnthavis.com/a-pastoral-earthquake-at-the-synod#.VDyTj6PGyLo">“pastoral earthquake”</a> and a <a href="http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/seismic-shift-in-rome-new-catholic-church-document-praises-committed-gay-an">“seismic shift in Rome”</a> for praising gay relationships. </p>
<p>Despite these headlines, no changes to the church’s position on sex, marriage and the family were announced. In contrast, the document actually reveals Pope Francis’ strategy to convert homosexuals, unmarried couples and divorcees to the true Catholic faith.</p>
<p>For more than a decade now, scholars of religion have been analysing the relationship between the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the decline of faith in western nations. Callum Brown, for example, <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Death_of_Christian_Britain.html?id=eMvy_kncEa0C&redir_esc=y">has argued</a> that secularisation in Britain was caused by women abandoning Christian sexual morality in the 1960s and ceasing to pass on their faith to their children.</p>
<h2>Responding to a generational loss of faith</h2>
<p>In calling an extraordinary meeting of the synod to discuss the family, the Pope has recognised this link between sexual liberation and secularisation (although in reverse order to Brown). The synod’s <em>relatio post disceptationem</em>, its interim report, states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the crisis of faith has led to a crisis in matrimony and the family and, as a result, the transmission of faith from parents to children has often been interrupted. The purpose of the Synod is to respond to this crisis in the perpetuation of the faith.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is in the light of this evangelistic imperative that the report’s positive statements about homosexuality, unmarried couples and remarried divorcees must be understood. </p>
<p>As the report puts it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Church turns respectfully to those who participate in her life in an incomplete and imperfect way, appreciating the positive values they contain rather than their limitations and shortcomings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So it affirms the positive elements of the relationships of unmarried straight couples and couples who have remarried without having previous marriages annulled. For remarried divorcees, it raises the question whether they could be re-admitted to communion after a suitable period of discipline. </p>
<p>The report notes that homosexuals “have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community”. It questions whether the church is capable of “accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony”. It also recognises that homosexual relationships could embody elements of Christian virtue and that the church needs to attend to the needs of the children of same-sex couples.</p>
<p>The document thus reflects and continues the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/pope-francis-who-am-i-to-judge-gays/story-e6frg6so-1226687880000?nk=e9b90e21bb5a0cab63dd2b93044e2f97">conciliatory approach</a> that Pope Francis has taken throughout his papacy to those on the fringes of the church, particularly sexual dissidents. It is a sharp contrast to his predecessors, who emphasised the negative elements of those who fell short of the church’s sexual ideal.</p>
<h2>A change in emphasis, not doctrine</h2>
<p>But the question remains: what has actually changed? </p>
<p>In short, the answer is nothing substantive. The <em>relatio</em> is merely a report of proceedings. No decisions will be made at this synod.</p>
<p>We will have to wait until the ordinary synod of bishops in October 2015 for more definitive statements.</p>
<p>The way in which the Vatican publicly frames discussions of sexuality has undergone a pastoral shift in emphasis. This has won enthusiastic praise from gay lobby groups. </p>
<p>Conservatives in the synod, on the other hand, have expressed discomfort with Pope Francis’ pastoral turn. They question whether there should not be greater emphasis in their discussions on sin and on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/10/raymond-burke-gay-relationships_n_5967198.html">homosexuality as being “intrinsically disordered”</a>.</p>
<p>But although its emphasis is positive, the synod report does not mark any doctrinal shift on sexuality in general, or the sinfulness of homosexual sex in particular. It repeatedly affirms that permanent, heterosexual marriage is the church’s ideal and any deviations from this are imperfect. It also unambiguously reaffirms its opposition to “artificial” birth control. </p>
<p>While it is nice that this Pope is not saying mean things about gays and divorcees, I doubt this qualifies as a “seismic shift” or an <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/10/earthquake-in-rome-as-vatican-changes-its-line-on-homosexuality-and-divorce/">“earthquake in Rome”</a>. </p>
<p>The clear purpose of the synod is to respond to conflicts between the church’s standards and contemporary global sexual practices. But there is no indication that their response will be to reverse church doctrine and approve of homosexuality, divorce, sex outside of marriage, or birth control. Rather, their goal is to convert gays, divorcees and fornicators and bring them back to the Church and the Church’s sexual ideals:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All these situations have to be dealt with in a constructive manner, seeking to transform them into opportunities to walk towards the fullness of marriage and the family in the light of the Gospel. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m not sure that this shift from “stick” to “carrot” in the Catholic Church’s evangelisation efforts can or should be measured on the Richter scale.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Jones receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.</span></em></p>A report of debate from the first half of the extraordinary synod of Catholic bishops meeting in Rome has been described as a “pastoral earthquake” and a “seismic shift in Rome” for praising gay relationships…Timothy W. Jones, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.