Kudos to Alice Park over at Time.com for spreading news of this study showing that the children of lesbians may do better in life than the average kid. Now, you know that I have differed with my dear Sapphist friends about whether boys should be allowed to pee standing. But you should know that I am not at all surprised to hear that their sons, statistically speaking, will outrank their peers. From the Time.com piece:

The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.

This is not, of course, because all lesbians are great parents or all straights are terrible parents. But I think the main reality–one that argues in favor of real, unfettered family planning–is that these women have to really want to become parents before it happens. Just think of the social and bureaucratic crucible they have to pass through before becoming parents, everything from finding the right donor to getting a good lawyer who can formalize both parents’ relationship with the child (not to mention living in the right state where they can have the most rights as parents). It’s an amount of hassle that simply pre-selects those families for success. For straight people to “become a family” you don’t need much more than a couch in the den and some alcohol.

But many people will find this report genuinely surprising because they have been told time and again that homosexuals are bad parents. Dangerous parents. So risky that many states would rather have their children languish in institutions and foster care than be adopted by gays. They have not been told this by the Bible, which really has nothing to say about gay adoption (although yes, it says that homosexuality receives the same punishments as adultery). They have been told this by their politicians, by elected officials who hope to keep their clammy hands on power just a bit longer by playing to prejudice.

Alas, those pols who go out of their way to purposefully spread hate and misinformation are probably just in the closet with Roy Ashburn, Larry Craig and all the rest. And the barely-legal boys the politicians are picking up from the gay bars: that’s right, they probably had straight parents too.