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The kids are OK: it is discrimination not same-sex parents that harms children

Ken W Knight*, Sarah EM Stephenson*, Sue West*, Martin B Delatycki, Cheryl A Jones, Melissa H Little, George C Patton, Susan M Sawyer, S Rachel Skinner, Michelle M Telfer, Melissa Wake, Kathryn N North and Frank Oberklaid
Med J Aust 2017; 207 (9): . || doi: 10.5694/mja17.00943
Published online: 23 October 2017

An update on the evidence, and implications for the medical community

The current public debate about same-sex marriage raises a number of significant issues for medical professionals and researchers in Australia. Misinformation is circulating in the public domain that children and adolescents with same-sex parents are at risk of poorer health and wellbeing than other children. An increased public health risk exists as a result of homophobic campaign messages for the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) community, including a mental health risk for same-sex couples, their children, and young people who identify as LGBTIQ+.


  • 1 Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC
  • 2 University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
  • 3 Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, VIC
  • 4 Victorian Clinical Genetics Services, Melbourne, VIC
  • 5 Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW
  • 6 Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, NZ


Correspondence: frank.oberklaid@rch.org.au

* Joint first authors 


Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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