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'For a significant number of these children, their adjustment would be promoted were their parents able to get married'
Proposition 8 bans gay marriage
Proposition 8 trial hears children do well with gay parents
The federal trial deciding the fate of gay marriage in California has heard that children raised by same-sex parents are just as likely to be well-adjusted as those raised by heterosexuals.
Michael Lamb, head of Cambridge University's Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, was testifying in San Francisco on behalf of two gay couples in a lawsuit challenging Proposition 8, the ballot measure passed in 2008 that overturned a state ruling allowing gay marriage.
"We have a substantial body of evidence documenting that a child being raised by same-sex parents are just as likely to be well-adjusted as children raised by heterosexual parents," Lamb said.
He added: "For a significant number of these children, their adjustment would be promoted were their parents able to get married."
Lamb also said that studies show "no significant increase" in the proportion of children who become gay or lesbian when they are raised by same-sex couples rather than heterosexuals, and that there was no evidence that they were more likely to be the victims of incest or sexual abuse.
Attorney Matthew McGill, representing the plaintiffs, who claim Proposition 8 violates their rights under the US constitution, also introduced position statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association which disputed the idea that same-sex couples are unfit parents because of their sexual orientation.
Sponsors of Proposition 8 have said that restricting marriage to a man and a woman was justified by the need to foster procreation and ensure that children are raised by their biological parents.
David H Thompson, the lawyer for the Proposition 8 campaign, accused Lamb of being "a committed liberal", having admitted membership of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the National Organization of Women, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), Amnesty International and the Nature Conservancy.
