Study: Teens thrive with lesbian mothers

In the same week Washington voters passed an historic measure to allow gay marriage, a study was released on the effects of teenagers living with lesbian mothers and the results showed “they are academically successful and happy with their lives.”

The study followed the families for over 20 years.

“The 17-year-olds participating in the longest-running study of lesbian families had high school GPAs in the A- to B+ range, and nearly all planned to attend four-year colleges. These adolescents had strong family bonds, and they were nearly unanimous in describing their mothers as good role models.”

Nanette Gartrell, Physician and Visiting Scholar at the Williams Institute UCLA School of Law, tells KIRO Radio’s Terry and Rantz this was a very academically successful group of teens.

She said their average GPA was 3.56 and nearly 90 percent of them plan to attend four year colleges.

Gartrell said in a previous study, they actually compared the same teens to the Washington State Health Youth Survey where teens of the same age, ethnicity, and genders were asked about quality of life, with questions like: I look forward to the future, I get along with my parents, I feel satisfied with my life.

“We found no differences.”

Gartrell said it seems the key to happy, successful children is having committed parents who planned and desired to have children.

“We know that the parents were committed to raising healthy, happy children in an environment where they anticipated quite a bit of discrimination as they were developing their families and bringing these children into the world. That kind of commitment on the part of parents produces good outcomes.”

Gartrell said the results would be the same for any family, regardless of sexual orientation.

She said everyone wants to know the sexual orientation of these 17-year-olds.

“We asked them about sexual behavior and we compared them to a big national survey, called the National Survey of Family Growth, and we did not find that our adolescents were any more likely to have had same-sex sexual contact by the age of 17,” said Gartrell. “But everyone is very curious about the issue of sexual orientation and their identity in that regard.”

Marriage certificates will be granted to same-sex couples in Washington state on Dec. 6 when I-502 goes into effect. Weddings can take place after a three day waiting period.