Marriage And Children

It has been a staple argument on the theocon right that children do better in societies where gay couples are marginalized. A new UNICEF report surveying child welfare provides some challenging data on that front. Of 21 developed countries, the United States, which has attacked gay couples more virulently than any other developed country, is near the bottom of the list for child welfare - and the criteria are not jst physical well-being. The report assumes that kids in single-parent homes do worse than those with two parents. In which countries did children fare best? Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland: all the countries with the most advanced rights for gay couples. Of course, there's no necessary connection here. But the notion that integrating gay families into society hurts kids, whereas stigmatizing gay love helps kids (the Stanley Kurtz/Maggie Gallagher thesis), is certainly not borne out by the latest data.