An end to gay adoption bans?

NYT's Motherlode:

Over the past year, a parade of studies have all set out to test that assumption. What makes this latest one different was that, for the first time, research on the social development and psychological health of children was not based on the opinions of their parents alone but also of outside observers (teachers and care givers.) And, also for the first time, a control group of heterosexual families was used. The University of Virginia and George Washington researchers studied preschoolers who were adopted at birth by 27 lesbian couples, 29 gay male couples and 50 heterosexual couples. (Yet another groundbreaking aspect to this study was the number of gay men who were included; to date most of the research has been on lesbian mothers.)

What did they find? That it’s the quality of the parenting that creates a psychologically healthy child, not the sexual orientation of the parents.

The implication: From a public-policy stance, the study suggests there is “no justification for denying lesbian and gay prospective adoptive parents the opportunity to adopt children,” Patterson, the lead researcher, said.