Reference Note: Same Sex Couples and Same Sex Couples Raising Children Study

I got the heads-up for this report from Docuticker. I would probably have just read it and made a brief note later, except for the fact that I could have used this about two weeks ago when I had a student coming in with a question on the topic. Her question was: "what are the effects of children being raised by gay couples?" In other words, what she wanted to know was if these children suffered any traumas or had any different experiences from children being raised in households of heterosexual couples or single-earner households. I managed find her some articles through our databases about gay couples raising children and about adopted children in other settings (since gay couples are more likely to adopt, which was a finding of the report I am noting here) as well as children in other settings in general. However, I would have loved to give her the link to this report, which at only 19 pages or so, is actually something that could be useful and not too hard to read. It would not have answered all her questions, but it would have made a good addition. The report itself looks at Census data, and it finds that same-sex couples are actually very much alike the rest of the population. Readers can find the actual report in PDF format, produced by the The Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law. Actually, I took a look at the site, and the Williams Project provides other studies on sexual orientation, for instance, broken down by ethnicity, which may be of interest to researchers in this area.