Both Scripture and experience teach us that parents do exert some level of influence on their children. This is why God instructed us in Deuteronomy 6:7 to teach His laws diligently to our children. That makes perfect sense. But interestingly enough, there seems to be heavy resistance to the idea that lesbian and gay parents can influence their children towards the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

In a recent study by Dr. Walter Schumm, a Kansas State University Family Studies and Human Services professor, the assertion of a 2006 study by Paul Cameron was confirmed. According to Schumm’s abstract, “Despite numerous attempts to bias the results in favour of the null hypothesis and allowing for up to 20 (of 63 or 32 percent) coding errors, Cameron’s (2006) hypothesis that gay and lesbian parents would be more likely to have gay, lesbian, bisexual or unsure (of sexual orientation) sons and daughters was confirmed.”

In other words, despite efforts to bias the results toward the idea that gay and lesbian couples were less likely to have gay and lesbian children, the results still confirmed otherwise.

Study results being challenged

This should not be all that surprising. What’s rather interesting is that many people who have a vested interest in these findings seem too quick to dismiss Schumm’s findings as biased. According to an interview he did with America Online, part of Schumm’s attempt not to bias the research involved labeling some of the children of gay parents “straight” even though they were “adamant about not declaring their sexual orientation at all,” even when there was an indication that they were actually gay.

Dr. Schumm also did more extensive research and analysis than Cameron in his 2006 study, researching 10 books, doing an anthropological study, and using scientific articles. He noticed the overall trend that “lesbians begat more lesbians.” Here are some of Schumm’s findings:

Study findings

• The children of lesbian parents identified themselves as gay 31 percent of the time
• The children of gay men had gay children 19 percent of the time
• The children of a lesbian mother and gay father had at least one gay child 25 percent of the time

When the study restricted the results to only children in their 20s:

• 58 percent of the children of lesbians called themselves gay
• 33 percent of the children of gay men called themselves gay
• About 5 to 10 percent of the children of straight parents call themselves gay

Of course there are many factors that can throw statistics like this off. Depending on how the studies were administered, many of the children of straight parents may be only claiming to be straight out of fear of reprisal or perhaps bringing shame on their families. The children claiming to be gay may be doing so only to align themselves ideologically with their parents, much like children will call themselves Christians only because their parents are.

The truth in the study

Whether these statistics speak the whole truth or only a part of it, it seems to me that the greater truth is not which parents can produce the most gay and lesbian children, but what we teach our children. God had this to say in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 about what we should teach our children:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

In light of the recent stories of violence and bullying of gays and lesbians inappropriately blamed on Christian teaching, God would also have us remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:39, as He added, “And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This simply means, even if our neighbors are gay or lesbian, we are to treat them with the same love we have for ourselves and God.