Gay Father In The Family And The Society

The love and personal relationship with their partners decreased for most parents, having a child. In addition, the rate of social participation of gay fathers also decreased; they appeared to socialize more with heterosexual parents and reported losing some gay relationships since they became parents (Bergman et al., 2010). Gay fathers reported higher life satisfaction but gave less important to their career since becoming a parent (Panozzo, 2015).

Research on fathering has shown that heterosexual fathers influence their children in similar ways to mothers (Lamb, 2010). In addition, the broader social environment can have a marked impact on the psychological well-being of children, and children with gay fathers can be more vulnerable and exposed to discrimination than children with lesbian mothers because gay father families possess the additional non-traditional characteristics of being headed by men (Golombok & Tasker, 2010). Nevertheless, due to the presence of two male parents and the absence of a female parent from the household, it has been reported that the gender development of children with gay fathers may vary from those of the children with lesbian mothers or heterosexual parents.

Although recent academic discourse in Western Europe, specifically the U.K., maintains that scholars should move beyond asking whether gay parenting is possible to a more critical analysis of queer parenting (Clarke, 2006; Hicks, 2006a), we assert that this is not the case in ‘‘the more religious and politically polarized climate’’ of the United States (Clarke & Kitzinger, 2005).

Research has suggested that, given the cultural trend away from the nuclear family, gayest men see their potential family life in the ' normal ' form of two parents in a committed relationship managing their child's daily life (Rubun & Faith-Oswald, 2009). Nevertheless, this family type is not the experience of many gay fathers, particularly those who are parents of donors (Dempsey, 2006; Van Reyk, 2007) or those who are parenting with a female or male ex-partner (Bozett, 1989). These men are often living within non-traditional families, in some cases negotiating everyday life with two or more co-parents or entering into fatherhood as a non-resident parent (Power, Perlesz, Brown et al., 2010). For some of these fathers, their parenting role has been constructed as an arrangement whereby they are available for the child psychologically and physically but do not have any day-to-day caring or financial responsibilities (Donovan, 2000; Dunne, 1999; Rane & McBride, 2000).

Previous studies shown that same-gender parenting have only marginally included gay parented families. Gay parent is important while there appears to be few overall differences between different-gender and same-gender couples, parental gender or even the interaction between parental gender and sexual orientation may influence parenting practices and family dynamics (Bibarz and Stacey, 2010). Gay couples may share household and parenting duties more equally than heterosexual couples. Furthermore, gay couples may bring up less gender traditional children than heterosexual couples, but be more traditional in their gender socialization of their children (Bibarz and Stacey, 2010).

Some studies have raised questions about the potential role of social support in helping children deal with the issues or situations presented by having a parent who is gay or lesbian. Paul (1986) found that offspring who were told of parental gay, either in childhood or in late adolescence found the reports to be easier to cope with than those who originally learned of it during early to middle adolescence. Moreover, Huggins (1989) also reported that those who understood in infancy about maternal lesbianism had higher self-esteem than those who had not been aware of it until they became teenagers. Children might find it much easier to address issues raised by having parents who are gay if they understand about parental sexual orientation during childhood rather than teenage years. Furthermore, existing research does not provide a basis for claiming that the best interests of children are protected by family conflict or confidentiality about a gay or lesbian parent's sexuality, or by the requirement that a lesbian or gay parent maintain a household separate from that of a same-sex partner.

In addition, target effects on the social perception of same-sex couples are correlated with age. Gay men as parents seem to contradict expectations of sex and parenthood, according to Stacey (2006). Gay men are more harshly judged than lesbians because they are thought to contradict traditional gender roles and masculinity's hegemonic paradigm (Connell, 2005; Wells, 2011). In sharp contrast to these perceptions, a recent meta-analysis exploring the impact of gay fatherhood on child psychological adjustment has shown that, compared to children of heterosexual parents, children of gay fathers may fare better in some psychological domains, less internalizing and outsourcing problems (Miller et al., 2017). Researchers shown that these differences can be attributed to better socio-demographic characteristics (e.g. higher incomes, higher education), as well as to the resilience shown by gay fathers in the face of a discriminatory and oppressive social climate.

Gay fathers may give their children the advantage of serving as a model of androgyny rather than promoting traditional male role development among sons. The benefits offered to children in this regard are discussed in relation to the development of children's long-term life span (Bigner, 2000). Gay men who are fathers have a unique social-psychological environment that is more complex than other homosexual or heterosexual men. Their transition problems relate to issues of identification, self-acceptance, family acceptance, and acceptance by other homosexuals, as well as concerns related to aspects of parenting and custody (Bigner, & Bozett, 2000).

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Gay fathers tended to be stricter, more responsive to the needs of children, and more consistent in providing children with reasons for appropriate behavior than nongay fathers. For these similarities and differences in parenting styles, several explanations are explored (Bigner & Jacobsen, 2000). However, it felt less competent than heterosexual fathers in their place of child-rearing. Especially for gay fathers, rejection experiences and the feeling they have to defend their situation were significantly related to the relationship between father and child, parental stress, and the well-being of children (Bos, 2010).

Gay Fathers in Context of the Society

An enigma in our society is the man who is both a homosexual and a father. By nature, the word homosexual dad is contradictory. But as gay has the connotation of homosexuality while father implies heterosexuality, this is more a matter of semantics (Bigner & Bozett,1989). Gay Dads endeavor to set before the reader the new American family, grounded on love and decision as opposed to the marriage of a man and lady and their regular posterity (Ten eyk,2003). Concern that children are negatively affected by having gay parents has been imminent recently (Harris, 2013).

Gay fathers also experience criticism from the society because of its belief that a child cannot be raised properly without a mother. They have to contend with the still-prevalent belief that children need a mother to thrive and stereotypes associated with gay men as frivolous, unstable, and unfit parents, (Ellen C. Perrin, Sean M. Hurley, Kathryn Mattern, Lila Flavin and Ellen E. Pinderhughes, 2019). Although gay fathers did not differ from heterosexual fathers in the strength and quality of their relationships, feelings of rejection and having to justify themselves as parents affected fathers’ feelings of competence as parents (Perrin, et al. 2019). Because of the standards that the world require, gay fathers are expected to experience stigma from the society.

According to Reuters (2019), almost two-thirds of gay fathers’ experience humiliation based on their status as homosexual dads, and half of them avoid situations out of fear of mistreatment or discrimination, the current study found. Not surprisingly, gay fathers were more likely to report humiliation affecting their lives in states with fewer legal protections. They also reported more active discrimination in states with fewer legal protections, particularly from family members and in religious settings.

However, many gay men in America still automatically assume that fatherhood is not an option. In fact, many men view being gay as equivalent to being childless. An openly gay man and father, Don, elaborates, ‘‘the coming-out process for me was not so much about people knowing I was gay as it was more about losing the idea of having children’’ (Mallon, 2004). Yet, some recent studies have highlighted that many gay-identified men who live in America would like to raise a child and those who said they wanted children were younger than those who did not (Bryant & Demian, 1994; Sbordone, 1993).

In spite of the fact that the terms 'gay' and 'father' are frequently thought to be totally unrelated, actually there are many gay men in the United States who are also a guardian. As with any invisible minority, it is hard to precisely evaluate the quantity of gay guardians that exist. In spite of recognized troubles, various researchers and associations have created estimations. In an on-going report, theorize that there are somewhere in the range of one and 9,000,000 gay guardians in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union (2000) recommends that the number is a lot higher, given their report that 6 to 14 million youngsters in the United States have a parent who is gay or lesbian (Stacey & Biblarz, 2001).

The on-going sociology investigate concentrating on gay child rearing has moved from a craving to demonstrate that lesbians and gay men can be great guardians and that the Children brought up in these families create in a sound way, to inventive grant that lights up the manners by which gay guardians both deliberately and unwittingly challenge heteronormative child rearing beliefs and structures. For instance, through their investigation of gay dads who came to parenthood in the wake of setting up a gay personality and present the idea of degendered child rearing and reason that gay dads have a lot to instruct non-gay dads about child rearing (Silverstein and Auerbach, 2001).

This review of related literature hereby indicates the need to have further more knowledge and understanding on the life if gay father herein the Philippines considering that the studies that have been presented were operated from other counties. Moreover, the summary of this related studies presented can help readers to have a better understanding and deep ideas about the current phenomenon in focus.