How Do Gay Parents Interact With Rearing Their Child's Academic Achievement?

English 161
1 April 2013
Proposal
How do gay parents interaction with rearing their children affect their child 's academic achievement? Sam is an awesome guy. He 's very bright and a great baseball player. He 's similar to any other seventeen year old boy in high school, yet I rarely see him. In fact I rarely see his whole family for the simple fact that my uncle has a male partner. Recently over the past years I was able to see Sam. Sam was adopted when he was four years old and he has lived with gay parents his whole life. He has been very active in high school joining many clubs and academically he has done very well. According to Charlotte Patterson 's article Children of Gay and Lesbian Parents, "There were little differences between teenagers living with same-sex parents and those
living with other-sex parents" (242).
Sam went through similar experiences as me whether it is girl relationship problems or obsessing about sports. Children with same sex parents are no different from children with opposite sex parents. They experience the same events of life, in specific, academically they are no different as well. They perform very well in school in fact children with same sex parents have similar ratio of children being held back a grade compared to opposite gender parents (Gorlick, Standford Report). Although they may seem no different from other kids growing up, beneath the surface a majority of children work harder than children with opposite gender parents. They withstand the social injustice brought by students and school, yet they perform similar to the other students. Although children with same sex parents perform
academically similar to the other students; they endure the social discrimination and work harder to achieve the same academic success other children accomplish. My thesis , but through my sources I was able to find evidence for my thesis. That children who have same gender parents are academically similar to other children, but beneath the surface they withstand the social discrimination because of their parents. Through Socha 's book Parents and Children Communicating with Society I was able to read personal narratives of children who secretly dealt with social discrimination because of their parents. Although some coped by doing well academically or with sports, many struggled being resilient towards the hate of their same gender parents. The book also touched upon how their parents helped their children through this discrimination. Patterson 's article Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents described more in detail of how same gender parents help their children cope. Most of the time they tell them to ignore the problem and think of themselves as very special people. Regardless of what people call them, same gender parents emphasize communication and relationships very strongly compared to same gender marriages. Finally, through the other two articles I was able to find evidence that children have different coping mechanisms and one of the biggest ones were doing well in school. According to The Standford Report children with same gender parents go through a great amount of social stress, but through their parents strong pride, they work to match the same accomplishments as other children, even to the point of exceeding them. This thesis is very interesting, because it is hard to say if children with same gender parents are really academically similar or even better than children with straight gender parents. I expect to prove that children with same gender parents are no different from other children growing up socially and academically. When finding my sources it is very hard to get specific, but as generalize my search first more topics appear that I can work with.

Annotated Bibliography
Journals
Gorlick, Adam. "Standford News." Children Raised by Gay Couples Show Good Progress through School (2010): n. pag. Web. . This article examined the similarities students with gay parents perform compared to students with straight parents. It explains that the difference is very subtle and in actuality there is no difference. Students with gay parents perform or lack performance similarly with students with straight parents. This article was from Standford University and was reliable. It provided great support for my thesis, because on the surface children with gay parents are similar to children with straight parents. This article explains clearly that they always seem similar, but in reality they are withstanding much discrimination.
Patterson, Charlotte J. "Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents." Current Directions in Psychological Science 15.5 (2006): 241-44. Print. This article discusses the psychological experiences children go through by being raised by same gender parents. It discusses the issues children deal with and what they experience in school because of their parents. The article describes that many people think that children go through a lot of emotional distress, but in actuality they go through the same experiences children with opposite gender marriages go through. This article is from the University of Virginia and is a reliable source. It helped greatly with finding information in what children with gay parents experience compared to children with straight parents.

Russo, Charles J. "RESPECT FOR ME BUT NOT FOR THEE: REFLECTIONS ON THE IMPACT OF SAME-SEX." RESPECT FOR ME BUT NOT FOR THEE: REFLECTIONS ON THE IMPACT OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE ON EDUCATION (2011): n. pag. Print. This article examines the impact same sex marriage effects children academically compared to children with opposite gender marriages. The article discusses the social discrimination children have to deal with because of their parents. Although they seem similar to any other child, they go through many tough situations because of their parents. The article explains the struggle children go through to accomplish the same academic achievements compared to other children that have opposite gender parents. This journal was from Brigham young University Education and law Journal which is a reliable source. The journal helped greatly in finding information to back my thesis that children with same gender parents are struggling with discrimination, even though they seem similar to other children on the surface.
Books
Socha, Thomas J., and Glen H. Stamp. Parents and Children Communicating with Society: Managing Relationships outside of Home. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print. This book described the social mistreatment children with gay parents received from society. Multiple narratives of different children talked about their social mistreatment from friends and how it affected them. The book examines how children manage their feelings and how they cope with their social discrimination. It also describes how it affects the relationship between parents and their children. The book was a very reliable source and it helped me with my thesis tremendously. It helped support my idea that children with same gender parents still go through hardships that ultimately affect them in multiple ways such as academically.