The New York Times reported on a new study showing Americans are broadening their accepted definition of family. At COLAGE we know families vary endlessly – from single parents raising children, two moms, two dads, co-parenting couples or single parents, transgender parents, adoptive parents, children born through donor insemination, and beyond.
For 20 years COLAGE has been the only national youth-driven network of people with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer parent. By connecting with our peers we realize our difference is our strength, we find our voices, and we begin to share our stories. Perhaps this study proves that all those years of sharing our stories has truly impacted societies view of “what makes a family.”
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Study Finds Wider View of ‘Family’
By SAM ROBERTSA majority of Americans now say their definition of family includes same-sex couples with children, as well as married gay and lesbian couples.
At the same time, most Americans do not consider unmarried cohabiting couples, either heterosexual or same-sex, to be a family — unless they have children.
The findings — part of a survey conducted this year as well as in 2003 and 2006 by Brian Powell, a sociology professor at Indiana University, Bloomington — are reported in a new book, “Counted Out: Same-Sex Relations and Americans’ Definitions of Family,” to be published on Wednesday by the Russell Sage Foundation. Since the surveys began, the proportion of people who reported having a gay friend or relative rose 10 percentage points, said Professor Powell, the book’s lead author.
“This is not because more people are gay now than in 2003,” he said. “This indicates a more open social environment in which individuals now feel more comfortable discussing and acknowledging sexuality. Ironically with all the antigay initiatives, all of a sudden people were saying the word ‘gay’ out loud. Just the discussion about it made people more comfortable.”
The book concludes that framing the equality of same-sex couples in terms of “the best interests of the child” might prove to be a more successful political argument than others.
“Neither the numbers from our data nor actual votes on initiatives are anywhere near the sufficient magnitude to support the idea that the public is ready to embrace same sex-couples with open arms,” the authors say. But, likening the resistance to laws and mores against interracial marriage, “we envisage a day in the near future when same-sex families also will gain acceptance by a large plurality of the public.”
The latest telephone survey of 830 people conducted this year found that Americans were almost equally divided on same-sex marriage. “I don’t think people are ready to embrace it, but people are ready to accept it,” Professor Powell said of same-sex marriage.
The survey also found a growing acceptance that genetics, rather than parenting, peers or God’s will, was responsible for sexual orientation.