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The increasing frequency of same-sex partnerships and planned lesbian families raises questions about stigmatization and functioning of the children. To examine this issue, investigators longitudinally followed 78 children (cases) of 154 lesbians (14 single mothers) who had used donor insemination. Biological mothers rated their children on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at ages 2, 5, 10, and 17 years, and scores were compared with those from a normative CBCL sample.
Case children were drawn mostly from urban communities, and 93% were white (vs. 68% of the normative sample); rates of parental separation were similar to U.S. Census data. Sperm donors for 50 children (64%) were unknown; 19 of these children could learn the donor identity …