Social conservatives who cry "what about the children" when faced with the reality of civil unions are blaming the victim for their own social ignorance, says Mark Henrickson, senior lecturer in social and cultural studies at Massey University's Albany Campus. It's a clear wake-up message to the likes of businessman John Sax, who orchestrated a letter to MPs signed by several prominent businesspeople – including Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard – which alleged gay parents were more likely to abuse and murder their children. The letter had no social science to back it up. Henrickson, who headed the team behind Lavender Islands, one of the world's largest cross-section studies of a GLBT population, says the results of that study, which found that just over one in five of the 2000+ respondents were parents, showed that lesbian/gay parenting in New Zealand was a reality and had been for some time. “It seems to me that providing a legal framework for the stability of relationships can only contribute to the overall stability of the environment for the child,” says Henrickson. “This must be a good thing from the perspective of the child.” A snapshot of the lesbian/gay parents responding to the study found them well-educated, high income earners, and aged forty-plus. “What this does suggest is that LGB parents are hardworking, rate-paying, tax-paying contributors to society with a high level of financial security,” says Henrickson. “These are indicators of people with an investment in their children and their children's futures.” Two-thirds of the surveyed parents said that their children had not been disadvantaged in any way because of their parents sexual identities, although when discrimination did occur it was happening at school, in the medical office and in clubs and sport. “If discrimination against children of LGBs is occurring in any form to any extent, then it is up to educators, health care workers, faith groups and others to educate people about how not to discriminate,” says Henrickson. “To punish the children of LGBs, or LGBs themselves for social ignorance is a classic example of 'blaming the victim'. “'Not discriminating' goes beyond merely tolerating: it has to do with allowing ourselves to be informed and changed by the experiences of other communities and cultures around us."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Monday, 10th January 2005 - 12:00pm