Sometimes Research Sucks It { Children Raised in Single-parent families are Screwed }

So i read an article yesterday that referred to research that showed kids who are raised in pretty much anything other than a family with a mother and a father are screwed.  The author indicated that single-parent families were less healthy/successful/happy and were more prone to crime and poverty, etc. It also said that future research would likely show that children raised in gay-parent families would have similar results as the vagabonds raised by single parents.  This article (and i've lost the link to it, or else i would quote it and thus be more accurate about what it said) really pissed me off. 

First of all, where are the VAST majority of single-parent families?  Inner cities.  Are those kids affected by a hell of a lot more than just the fact that they only have ONE parent?  OF COURSE they are.  Drugs, violence, gangs, crime...all these thing affect those kids. 

You can't use that study to speak for the majority of single-parent families from "average" society.  And you certainly can't use those studies to predict the future outcome of children raised in gay-parent families. 

I'm just an average, white, middle class chick who was a single mom for about 6 years before remarrying.  Is single-parenting more challenging than having two parents in the picture?  Of course it is.  I can speak for that.  But i can also speak for all the single moms i knew (and still know) personally. 

I'm going to list a few of the single moms (anonymously) that i know, and the outcomes of their kids:

S - 2 girls, one graduated college with honors, the other graduated from a language-submersive high school with high honors; both are involved in clubs and/or sports

W - raising a son pretty much since birth, on her own.  The son is smart as a whip, does great in school, is kind, concerned, and loving. 

L - single mom for many years to one daughter who does well in school, behaves well, is not scarred in any way; fully functional

H - single mom for several years, one son who never had issues in school or at home, no acting out; completely functional

Come on, let's face it.  We could all sit down and compile a list of perfectly normal, healthy, functional families who don't fit the mold of "one mother and one father." 

I think it's quite easy and convenient for certain groups to take research and twist it into whatever they want it to imply.  I think it's rubbish and downright manipulative to do that. 

What do i predict for children raised in gay-parent families?  I predict they will have more open minds, more compassion and understanding and less judgment, in general.  I think they'll perform alone the same lines as any other child in a family with healthy parents (or parent), and be prone to the same ups and downs, challenges, truimphs, failures as the rest of "average" society (and by that, i mean kids not growing up in the harsh reality of inner cities or other less than ideal situations).  I think they'll just be "normal."

And let's face, it, i'm usually right.  ;oP