222 X Court and the Legal System—Family Forensics
sexual proclivities as well as to be subjected to additional sexual harm. Concerns
also arise as far as children in nonconventional families experiencing difficulties
with gender identity, gender roles, and having an increased likelihood of moving
toward a homosexual orientation. A second category of concerns is that children
living with homosexual parents may be stigmatized, teased, or otherwise trauma-
tized by peers. Some courts have expressed fears that children in the custody of
gay or lesbian parents will be more vulnerable to psychological maladjustment or
will exhibit interpersonal difficulties and subsequent behavior problems. These are
just some of the pertinent issues which are discussed within the context of gay and
lesbian families. The following case illustrates the family dynamics of a young girl
raised by lesbian parents.
Sarah is a i 0-year-old in the fourth grade. She is healthy, bright, curious, and deter-
mined. She was born to Marsha into a White family consisting of two parents, Marsha
and Jane. The donor of the sperm, Bill, is a heterosexual man who is a friend of Marsha
and Jane and liked the idea of physically participating in helping his friends create a fam-
ily- Marsha and Jane have all along chosen to counter external threats to their family by
being out as lesbians. They live in a large city in a part of town friendly to lesbian-headed
families. Marsha is active at Sarah s school, working to educate the teachers about lesbian
and gay parents and the needs of the children. They belong to a local lesbian-and-gay
parents group and attend gatherings as a family. In addition, they have consciously tried
to give Sarah tools tor interacting with the larger world. They talk to her about homo-
phobia, helping her recognize it so she can learn to separate someone else's prejudice
from a statement about her personally. However, to her parents' dismay, Sarah is signaling
a need to know about her biological roots. Her parents have feelings in common with
many parents whose families are created through adoption or donor insemination. They
want Sarah to be only their child, Sarah's parents want to protect her from the pain and
confusion that may be generated by needing to integrate the complex roots of her iden-
tity. On the other hand, her parents want Sarah to feel whole and integrated. They want
to do all they can to prepare Sarah by giving her the support and the skills to maneuver
through a complex process (Barrett, 1997).Literature Review
Sarah's case elucidates some of the dynamics which may arise in gay and lesbian
families. For example, gay and lesbian families have to continually struggle with
prejudicial notions which include homophobia and gross stereotyping. On the ba-
sis of their sexual orientation, homosexual parents are continually labeled as unfit
parents who are incapable of rearing well-adjusted children. Yet there is an absence
of literature indicating any significant difficulties experienced by children brought
up in households of lesbian or gay parents relative to those experienced by children
growing up in comparable heterosexual households. The existing body of research
suggests that gay and lesbian parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to pro-
vide home environments that are conducive to positive developmental outcomes
among children growing up within them. The following literature review further