Lesbians make better parents: study
Lesbians are better at raising children than conventional couples, research reveals.
Stephen Scott, director of research at Britain's National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, has said his research shows children from lesbian couples do better in life than the offspring of heterosexual couples.
"Lesbians make better parents than a man and a women," Mr Scott said.
His controversial position draws backing from research that suggests children with two female parents are more aspirational than those with opposite-sex parents. Some studies also also shows children with lesbian parents are no more or less likely to have tendencies towards homosexuality.
Research at Birkbeck College, part of London University, and Clark University in Massachusetts suggests that same-sex couples make good parents because children cannot be conceived accidentally - parents must make an active decision to adopt or find a sperm donor.
However, campaigners counter that fathers play an important part in family life and children have a right to get to know both of their biological parents.
Jon Davies, chief executive of the Families Need Fathers organisation, said: "Since all children will have a biological father the child has a right to know who that is. In most families where there will be a mother and a father, a father is needed to support them. But it is the quality of parenting that counts in the end regardless of the parents."
According to the annual British Social Attitudes Report, more than a third of people now believe same-sex parents are as good as heterosexual couples.
Ann Widdecombe, MP for Maidstone and the Weald, said: "This contradicts every other government study that has ever been done. These studies, which are quoted so often by the Government and the opposition, clearly show that children do better when they have both a mother and a father figure."
