The publication is provided for the use of clinicians, researchers, students, lawyers and parents involved in legal and policy issues related to lesbian and gay parenting. It is divided into three parts. The previous edition, which was titled Lesbian and Gay Parenting: A Resource for Psychologists 1995 was the successor to a publication titled Lesbian Parents and Their Children: A Resource Paper for Psychologists that was jointly produced by CLGBC and CWP in 1991. The 1991 publication was narrowly focused on providing an orientation to the research literature for psychologists doing child custody evaluations or giving expert testimony in court cases involving lesbian mothers. In addition, the publication was also targeted for lawyers and parties in parental rights cases involving lesbian parents, as the information provided could assist them in being better informed about the potential role of psychological research or psychological witnesses in their cases. The relatively narrow focus of this publication was selected because the Office on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity received a significant number of requests for resources on the relevant research literature from parents, lawyers and psychologists involved in parental rights cases. When CLGBC and CWP decided to revise and update the publication in 1993, they invited CYF to participate in the development of the new edition. The committees broadened the focus of the publication to include the empirical research on gay fathers, as well as lesbian mothers, and the clinical literature relevant to psychological services for lesbian and gay parents, their children, and their families. When the current edition was first planned in 1999, the committees decided that the focus of the publication should be narrowed again to serve the needs of psychologists, lawyers, and parties in family law cases. The decision to narrow the focus was made because the need for the publication seemed to be primarily in the forensic context. Lesbian and Gay Parenting is divided into three parts. Although comprehensive, the research summary is focused on those issues that often arise in family law cases involving lesbian mothers or gay fathers. We hope the publication will be useful to clinicians, researchers, students, lawyers, and parents involved in legal and policy issues related to lesbian and gay parenting. Our grateful acknowledgements to Charlotte Patterson for contributing the summary of research findings; to Mary Ballou, Ed Dunne, Susan Iasenza, Steven James CLGBC , Linda Jones, Bianca Cody Murphy CWP , Gary Ross Reynolds CLGBC , Lourdes Rodríques-Nogués CLGBC , William Sanchez CYF , and Ena Vazquez-Nuttal CYF , for assistance in compiling the bibliography for the previous edition and writing the annotations; and to Natalie Eldridge, Patricia Falk, Mary Clare, Lawrence Kurdek, April Martin, Royce Scrivner, Andy Benjamin, Beverly Greene CLGBC , and Laura Brown for reviewing the manuscript. We also thank Helen Supranova, Andrea Solarz, and Jessica Gehle for their work on the bibliography. We gratefully acknowledge the APA staff liaisons to our committees, Mary Campbell CYF , Gwendolyn Keita CWP , and Leslie Cameron CWP ; their assistants, Charlene DeLong and Gabriel Twose, and the APA publications staff members Joanne Zaslow, Editorial and Design Services, and Stevie Wilson. We especially thank Clinton Anderson, Director, Office on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, who worked diligently with committee members and staff to move this manuscript toward publication. Harper, PhD, MPH Office on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Robin A. Buhrke, PhD, Sari H. Dworkin, PhD, and Louise B. Silverstein, PhD Committee on Women in Psychology Beth Doll, PhD Committee on Children, Youth, and Families I wish particularly to thank Clinton Anderson for his invaluable assistance with the current version as well as with earlier versions of this manuscript. I also offer warm thanks to Natalie Eldridge, Patricia Falk, Mary Clare, Larry Kurdek, April Martin, Vera Paster, and Roy Scrivner for their helpful comments on the first version of this manuscript and to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful help in updating the current version. Patterson, PhD Lesbian and Gay Parents and Their Children: Summary of Research Findings Photos used in Lesbian and Gay Parenting are courtesy of By Charlotte J. As with beliefs about other socially stigmatized groups, the beliefs held generally in society about lesbians and gay men are often not based in personal experience, but are frequently culturally transmitted Herek, 1995; Gillis, 1998. The purpose of this summary of research findings on lesbian and gay parents and their children is to evaluate widespread beliefs in the light of empirical data and in this way ameliorate negative effects of unwarranted prejudice. Because many beliefs about lesbian and gay parents and their children are open to empirical testing, psychological research can evaluate their accuracy. Systematic research comparing lesbian and gay adults to heterosexual adults began in the late 1950s, and research comparing children of lesbian and gay parents with those of heterosexual parents is of a more recent vintage. Research on lesbian and gay adults began with Evelyn Hooker's landmark study 1957 , resulted in the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 Gonsiorek, 1991 , and continues today e. Case reports on children of lesbian and gay parents began to appear in the psychiatric literature in the early 1970s e. Starting with the pioneering work of Martin and Lyon 197
