A Canadian researcher using a massive data base has determined that children raised by same-sex parents are only 65 percent as likely to graduate from high school as children living in traditional families.

LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that the new study was conducted by Douglas W. Allen, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Allen relied upon a massive 20 percent sample of census data to examine the association of family structure with children's high school graduate rates.

"Besides lower overall high school graduation outcomes for children in same-sex households, the study found that daughters of same-sex parents had lower graduation rates than sons, and that daughters of homosexual male couples have significantly worse graduation rates than the daughters of lesbian couples," LifeSite reports. "Among boys in same-sex households, those in homosexual male households fared better than those in lesbian households."

Most unexpected was a finding that children of single parents actually had better graduation rates than children raised in same-sex households.

"The particular gender mix of a same-sex household has a dramatic difference in the association with child graduation,” Allen wrote. “Consider the case of girls. . . . Regardless of the controls and whether or not girls are currently living in a gay or lesbian household, the odds of graduating from high school are considerably lower than any other household type. Indeed, girls living in gay households are only 15 percent as likely to graduate compared to girls from opposite sex married homes."

Allen's study concludes that "children of married opposite-sex families have a high graduation rate compared to the others; children of lesbian families have a very low graduation rate compared to the others; and the other four types [common law, gay, single mother, single father] are similar to each other and lie in between the married/lesbian extremes."

The study corroborates the findings of a similar large-scale study by Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas whose "New Family Structures Study" found that children raised by heterosexual parents fared better in a variety of indicators of personal well-being than children raised by homosexuals.

Regnerus was subjected to an intense backlash from gay activists who demanded that he be punished for the study but the University refused after an investigation found that his work was not biased and was conducted according to scientific standards.

Regnerus commented on Allen's research in the Witherspoon Institute's Public Discourse, saying that it provides "a new and significant piece of evidence in the social science debate about gay parenting and the unique contributions that mothers and fathers make to their children’s flourishing."

The publication of the new study continues the emergence of new and population-based research in this area which is undermining popular claims that there is no difference between children raised in same-sex households and those raised by heterosexual parents.

Regnerus concludes: "Might the American Psychological Association and American Sociological Association have been too confident and quick to declare ‘no differences’ in such a new arena of study, one marked by the consistent reliance upon small or nonrandom ‘convenience’ samples? Perhaps. Maybe a married mom and dad do matter, after all."

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