J Psychol. 1997 May;131(3):313-32. Related Articles, Links


Did the APA misrepresent the scientific literature to courts in support of
homosexual custody?

Cameron P, Cameron K.

Family Research Institute, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2640, USA.

In 1994, American Psychological Association amicus briefs informed two state
Supreme Courts that (a) homosexual parents are not more apt to have
homosexual children; (b) lesbians "score significantly higher than
heterosexual parents" on a measure of parental effectiveness; and (c) no
differences between the children raised by homosexuals and nonhomosexuals
had been found "regardless of the geographic region within the United States
where the children were raised." In fact, the evidence from these briefs
shows to the contrary that (a) homosexual parents are more apt to have
homosexual children; (b) the findings on parental effectiveness consisted of
15 fathers being less verbal than 45 mothers; and (c) the finding of no
differences between homosexually and heterosexually raised children
consisted of investigators visiting 11 states to test 89 offspring of 83
lesbian vs. 81 children of 69 nonlesbian volunteers. The APA's support for
gay rights in these briefs may have violated its own ethical principles that
"psychologists base their statements on scientifically acceptable
psychological findings and techniques with full recognition of the limits
and uncertainties of such evidence" and that psychologists must "provide
thorough discussion of the limitations of their data, especially where their
work touches on social policy" (APA, 1981).