The thing about scientific research is that most of it really isn’t driven by questions like “is it possible to make babies from two female parents?” It’s much more like, “what sorts of cells is it possible to make from stem cells?” Once you can get an adult male stem cell to make a working sperm cell, it seems like an obvious question to ask whether you can do the same with an adult female stem cell. It really doesn’t have anything to do with feminism, queer politics or misandry, I’d bet

Cheers,

Gabriel

You would think this. It seems logical (though it rests on a fundamental assumption that people only don’t engage in homosexual behavior because they think it’s wrong–which is a wierd assumption. I mean, I don’t think it’s wrong, but I don’t engage in it; if you didn’t think it was wrong, would you?)

In any case, it’s true in only a very limited way. I direct you to the following study (actually, a lit review, based on multiple studies), from Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (a peer reviewed scientific journal), from Feb., 2002:

“The gender identity of preadolescent children raised by lesbian mothers has been found consistently to be in line with their biologic sex. None of the more than 300 children studied to date have shown evidence of gender identity confusion, wished to be the other sex, or consistently engaged in cross-gender behavior. No differences have been found in the toy, game, activity, dress, or friendship preferences of boys or girls who had lesbian mothers, compared with those who had heterosexual mothers.

No differences have been found in the gender identity, social roles, or sexual orientation of adults who had a divorced homosexual parent (or parents), compared with those who had divorced heterosexual parents. Similar proportions of young adults who had homosexual parents and those who had heterosexual parents have reported feelings of attraction toward someone of the same sex. Compared with young adults who had heterosexual mothers, men and women who had lesbian mothers were slightly more likely to consider the possibility of having a same-sex partner, and more of them had been involved in at least a brief relationship with someone of the same sex, but in each group similar proportions of adult men and women identified themselves as homosexual”

The key point here is that it’s true, children of homosexual parents were slightly more likely to consider homosexuality as an option (and to experiment with same-sex relationships, or at least to report having done so), but no more likely to identify as adultas as homosexual.

Note the sample size of 300–it’s not great, but not bad. 2-3000 would be better. The only study I found online that reported increased incidence of homosexuality in children of homosexual parents found 20% of boys of homosexual parents to be gay; but this was in a sample size of 10, (i.e., 2 out of 10 people studied), which is not a large enough sample to be statistically significant. This seems like a small detail, but it is the bedrock of social science research.

Cheers,

Gabriel

As for the thread, that theme around which our comments should focus, it is puzzling to me that time and money is ever spent on such research at all, much less for such an infinitesimal segment of society.

Subscribing to feminism does not advocate wanting a woman-only world, or asserting superiority of one gender over another. In fact, those attitudes are quite probably the diametric opposite of feminism.

Feminism is a slight misnomer for a movement wanting gender equality. The movement arose out of the oppression of women, hence the term “feminism.” But there is no inherent preference towards a particular gender; feminists want men and women to be treated equally.

I accept fully that there are people who try to assert superiority of one gender over another; a more accurate term for these people would be misandrists/misogynists (dislike of men/women respectively).

I hope you agree with the above analysis, and will consider using this more accurate terminology in the future, for the benefit of your readership.

Once and for all pinhead! It’s not about YOU and your perpetual rage! We don’t give a damn about your bony ass bullshit freakshows! Get over your selves, you egocentric regurgitated losers!

I have lived in the San Francisco area for years, have known gay women galore in that time, and or the record, I’ve NEVER known a single man-hating lesbian. It’s a silly right-wing stereotype that needs to be left by the wayside. Contrary to what far too many heterosexuals believe (especially insecure guys), the fact that gay women do not care to have sex with men does not translate into loathing for the male species. To maintain otherwise speaks more for your intolerance than theirs. Furthermore, I’ve known at least half a dozen children raised by lesbian couples; and all of them are intelligent, well-adjusted kids that damn near any parent would be proud to call their own.

And as long as we’re debunking myths about gays, its time that uptight straight men (especially the ones who support the moronic ban on gays in the military) get it through their skulls that queer men don’t want to have sex with every man they see… in fact, uptight straight men are usually the ones that gays have the least interest in. (Don’t flatter yourselves, dudes.)

On a practical note, children of homosexuals are statistically no more likely to grow up and be homosexual themselves than to grow up and be heterosexual–somewhere from 5-15%, depending on which studies you rely on. It would stand to reason, then, that many, if not most, of the children of these sorts of unions would go on to date, love, marry, and/or procreate with men. It simply makes no sense to think that this procedure would lead heterosexual women to want, in significant numbers, much less uniformly, to date, love, marry, and/or procreate with other women.

Keep up the great work Zee!!!!

Call me, male, smug and arrogant, but just don’t believe this concept can be made to work.