Homosexuality, Parenthood, and Social Deviance the Article

Homosexuality, Parenthood, And Social Deviance

The article "Lesbian and gay parenting: babes in arms or babes in the woods?" (Mccann, & Delmonte, 2005) examines the nature of parenting in connection with openly homosexual couples and the manner in which the sexual preference of parents affects their children. According to the authors, most of the objections to parenting by gay couples are entirely unfounded. Specifically, males within same-sex couples are actually more likely to be fully involved in their roles as parents than their heterosexual counterparts. Likewise the division of labor and parenting responsibilities in lesbian couples tends to be more equitable than within traditional marriages. Certainly, there is a range of parenting quality within same-sex relationships just as there is within traditional families; however, by comparison, same-sex couples are no less likely to provide stable and healthy environments for children than are opposite-sex parents within the traditional family system.

Social Control Theory and Relation to Gay Parenthood

In general, Social Control Theory posits that delinquency, antisocial behavior, and criminal deviance are substantially related to the strength of social constraints on antisocial behavior (Schmalleger, 2008). More particularly in relation to juvenile development, Social Control Theory suggests that when children are exposed to deviant or antisocial behavior in the family environment, they are more likely to exhibit antisocial and deviant behavior of their own (Schmalleger, 2008). Critics of gay marriage and (especially) of the rights of gay couples to raise children have argued that children raised by gay parents are more prone to delinquency, deviance, antisocial behavior, and criminality by virtue of the effects of the deviant lifestyles of their parents and the implications of exposure to deviance as predicted by Social Control Theory.

Critical Analysis of Proposed Connection

At the simplest level, there is a fundamental conceptual problem with the proposed analysis and the connection between gay parenthood and deviance or delinquency among children. Namely, deviance is substantially determined by entirely arbitrary social norms and values. Homosexuality in general and gay marriage in particular are only "deviant" because of the dominance of so-called "traditional" social norms and values. By way of example, in earlier generations, mixed-race relationships were also considered "deviant" and mixed-race marriages were illegal in some states until the 1960s (Schmalleger, 2008). The same is true of premarital sexual relationships.