‘The Christian Right and Homophobic Discourse: A Response to ‘Evidence’ that Lesbian and Gay Parenting Damages Children’

This ‘rapid response’ piece, submitted under the ‘Sexuality and the Church’theme, examines claims by Christian writers that lesbian and gay parenting isbad for children. The author analyses aspects of what he terms a ‘Christianhomophobic discourse’ in order to demonstrate the problematic claim toneutrality made by these writers. In addition, the author shows how theChristian writers’ view of research rests upon a series of positivistassumptions. Claims that research evidence shows children of lesbian or gayparents demonstrate gender or sexual identity confusion are disputed, and theauthor argues that the Christian writers present their own moral interpretationsrather than the ‘facts of the matter’. The author argues that the Christianwriters construct a version of homosexuality as highly diseased and dangerous,before concluding that it is both epistemologically and morally misguided to see‘sexuality’ as an object or variable which influences the development ofchildren.