Kids of same-sex parents fare as well

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- In a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the American Sociological Association said children fare as well with same-sex parents as traditional parents.

Cecilia Ridgeway, president of the American Sociological Association, said the friend-of-the-court brief outlined social science research that showed children fare just as well when raised by same-sex or heterosexual parents.

"The results of our review are clear," Ridgeway said in a statement. "There is no evidence children with parents in stable same-sex or opposite-sex relationships differ in terms of well-being. Indeed, the greater stability offered by marriage for same-sex as well as opposite-sex parents may be an asset for child well-being."

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages already legalized under the law of several states, and Proposition 8, which revoked the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.

"An issue at the heart of these cases is whether family composition, per se, affects the well-being of children and thus, provides a justification for limiting the right to marry," said Ridgeway, a professor of social sciences in the Sociology Department at Stanford University, said in a statement.

"This core question is an empirical one and is the subject of a broad range of social science research. As a scientific body, ASA has a duty to provide the court with a systematic and balanced review of the evidence to assess what the consensus of scholarly research has shown."