Same-sex parenting

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A meta-study commissioned and then
suppressed by the Canadian government

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Overview:

The province of Ontario, Canada became the first jurisdiction in North America to legalize same-sex marriage (SSM). This was ordered by a decree of the Ontario Court of Appeals in mid-2003. The federal Liberal party was in control of Parliament at the time. Concerned about the possibility of adverse effects by SSM on Canadian society, the government commissioned a massive meta-study titled: "Children's Development of Social Competence Across Family Types." ₁ Data was extracted from over 100 existing research papers that had studied the quality of parenting among the various types of families found in North America.

Two years later, in spite of a massive effort by religious and social conservative to halt the spread of SSMs, federal bill C-35 was signed into law. This made marriage available to loving, committed same-sex couples across the entire country. The law raised major concerns within conservative Christian, Jewish, Sikh and other religious communities in Canada about the potential damage that SSMs might make to the institution of marriage and to the culture itself.

At the next federal election, the Conservative party gained control of parliament. They censored the report that the earlier Liberal government had commissioned. Some feel that the reason for the suppression was that the report contradicted the beliefs and expectations of the Conservative Party and of social and religious conservatives.

In late 2006, the Conservative government attempted to reopen debate on SSM in the hopes of restoring the original one-man, one-woman definition of marriage, and restricting same-sex couples to some form of civil union. When this effort was defeated, religious and social conservatives urged the federal government to conduct a study into the effects of SSM on society. They were apparently unaware that the study had already been commissioned, written, and then buried. ₂

When the study was resurrected by its lead author under the Freedom of Information laws, it revealed that same-sex parents are equal or superior to opposite-sex parents in the raising of their children.

Religious and social conservatives have not asked the government to fund additional studies since this study surfaced.  

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Topics covered in this section:

• Political, religious, & social conservatives and the government report
• Summary of the report's findings
• More coming

 

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Related section in this website:

• Same-sex marriage in Canada.

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References used:

1. "Children's Development of Social Competence Across Family Types", Department of Justice, Canada, 2006-JUL at: http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/

2. Kevin Bourassa & Joe Varnell, "Harper shoves family study into the closet. Cons[ervatives] & Christian extremists don't want you to know," Equal Marriage, 2007-MAY-09, at: http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/

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Copyright © 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2008-JUN-19
Latest update: 2008-JUN-20
Author: B.A. Robinson

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