Blog Post #4, Option #2

Blog Post #4, Option #2

I thought every speaker that came to our class was very interesting and informative, but Phil Duran’s speech especially stuck out to me. I felt that his historical background really helped to support his views and to solidify his arguments. I was impressed with the information he was able to provide us on past events in the LGBT community that have led our society to be the way that it is today. His comments at the very end of the hour were especially intriguing to me.

At the end of class he was asked by a student what the LGBT community’s response would be to the statement, “a child being raised by gays may be harmed because of this environment.” In class the other day I also had a hard time thinking of a response to this because all I could think to ask was “well why would they? What makes that environment any more harmful?” Phil had a very similar response. He also asked, “Why would they?” He talked about how we learn how to parent by our own parents or guardians and that gay and lesbian people had parents just like any heterosexual person. They are no more likely to harm a child than a heterosexual couple would be. The argument that children raised by gays are at a higher risk for negative outcomes has been debunked by research in psychology. In a chapter written by Judith Stacey and Timothy J. Biblarz they write “most research in psychology concludes that there are no differences in developmental outcomes between children raised by lesbigay parents and those raised by heterosexual parents” (Biblarz & Stacey, pg. 55). So, why is this still an argument used today?

I believe this argument may still be around due to our slow changing society. After listening to Phil, I now understand how slow of process this is and that it will take our society a long time to move on from its past beliefs. Of course there will always be people who refuse to believe the evidence, but I hope that as time moves on, our society as a whole will continue to make great strides in protecting LGBT rights.

Julie Thurmes