In America, same-sex marriage is a widely debated topic in which opposing viewpoints decide whether it is ethical to allow or deny couples to marry. Under the terms of which same-sex marriage is debated the choice is to be made but as for the reasons given so far, children, adoption, religion, medical, roles of the household, and choice versus birth defect, there is little reason to deny legalization. In the instance of adoption, children within the household of a same-sex couple have been met with the argument that same-sex couples do not give a child the well rounded family view of man and wife. This argument made in The Wilson Quarterly by Mark Regnerus states that though same-sex parenting seems to have the same effects as "step parenting, adoptive, and cohabiting contexts " may not be able to replicate the optimal family style of a biological parent home. In the article it also states that based on Regnerus findings, it is hard to conclude that the lifestyle of a true same-sex home due to the data he collected. The main issues being "respondents were self-selected rather than chosen at random, and many were the kind one finds in educated and progressive urban environments " (The Gay Parent Report Card). This leaves the argument still open to debate as whether children of same-sex couples truly live different lifestyles and leaves little room to be used as an effective argument with so little data to support. The argument that furthered the inability to collect conclusive data for the opposing argument is that families of same-sex couples may face what I.H. Meyer, author of We'd be free: Narratives of Life Without Homophobia, Racism, or Sexism, calls the less studied minority stressors. These stressors include but are not limited to disrespect, denied services, as well as being over looked (Goldberg). Due to the nature of a same-sex couple, discrimination plays a large part in the child's growth.
