0:00:00.107,0:00:04.810
New evidence indicates that [br]gay fathers actually develop

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patterns, brain patterns, [br]that are typical in both

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straight men and straight women.[br]This is really fascinating study because

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it focuses primarily on brain scans.[br]And what the researchers did--

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and the researchers are from Israel--[br]is they scanned the brains of new mothers,

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then they scanned the brains of new[br]straight fathers and then they scanned

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the brains of new gay fathers,[br]and here's what they found.

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In the study, the mothers, who played [br]a primary caregiver role for their

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children, demonstrated heightened[br]activity in their brain's emotion-

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processing regions

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when watching their children. The straight[br]fathers, playing a traditional secondary

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parenting role, exhibited increased

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cognitive activity in the brain.[br]So the women were

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much more emotional, the men were [br]much more cognitive.

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...demonstrating awareness of what their [br]children's cries and cues were trying

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to communicate.

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But the gay fathers demonstrated both [br]the mother's emotional and father's

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cognitive brain activity, suggesting

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that they were at least according to [br]their brains, operating like both mothers

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and fathers. And so the researchers said[br]that, you know, the men's brains

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are very plastic, so they can adapt to [br]the given situation. They can play both

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roles, which is really, [br]really fascinating stuff.

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Well, apparently they're like super men--[br]and super women. I wonder if there's gonna be

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some jealousy coming out of this research.

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- They can apparently do both.[br]- They have superior brains.[br]- Ex--well, clearly.

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They're smarter, more cognitive and [br]more emotional. We also should bear in

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mind, like they're focusing here on the [br]effect on gay parents because

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I assume they have sort of an agenda.[br]Thankfully, the science supports the

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agenda that

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they can fill both roles and it's [br]ridiculous to say that a kid can only be

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brought up in a healthy fashion if he's with

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a traditional one-male [br]one-female relationship.

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But I'm sure this is, as they say, [br]is just as true if

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a guy has to raise a kid all by himself [br]or a single mother, like,

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they will have to fill both of those roles.

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The brain is plastic, not just for the [br]gay couples, it's plastic for us as well.

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And feeling like we should be [br]constrained by gender roles

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that were developed in the

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20s and 30s and 40s?[br]That's ridiculous. We are more

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plastic than that. We can fill more roles

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and what it means to be a mother and what it [br]means to be a father isn't the same as

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it was when--

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even when we were kids, let alone[br]when our parents were kids.

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Right, so this summer--this coming summer--[br]the National Organization for Marriage,

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along with Mike Huckabee, are planning [br]on doing this march in Washington DC to

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kind of protest

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same-sex marriage and marriage equality.[br]And one of the reasons why they do

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that is because they feel that children

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that are raised in same-sex households[br]do not fare well.

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But it's really interesting to hear that [br]argument because there's a growing body

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of evidence that proves that wrong. I[br]mean, we had done studies about this or

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had reported on studies about this [br]previously, in previous years,

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and it shows that, hey, not only do [br]children do just as well as,

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you know, children in heterosexual[br]families, but in some cases they might do

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- even better--[br]- (man) Yeah.

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And now we have actual brain scans [br]showing that there's really no

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element lacking in the parenting, in[br]terms of their brains and what they're

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likely to

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- do to raise their children.[br]- So you're totally right about the science

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and I'm glad that we have the science [br]on our side there, but also all of that

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should be completely irrelevant. Like the[br]fact that, even if we found that the

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kids they raised weren't as psychologically [br]developed, or weren't as

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emotionally developed...

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doesn't mean they don't have the right [br]to raise kids! I've a feeling that really

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stupid people probably don't raise kids [br]that are all that well off. We still let

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them procreate.

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- (woman) Can we mention Honey Boo-Boo?[br]- Exactly![br]- Is that okay?[br]- Yeah, like, okay if you did the study

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and you found that one racial group had kids [br]that were, on average, had an IQ two

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points lower,

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we don't bar them from having children.[br]Like, this is a sideshow

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that the conservatives bring up, that they're [br]not even right on, to try to stop people from--

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stop gay people from having the same [br]rights as everybody else.

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But at the end of the day, it's irrelevant.[br]They wouldn't bar people with some sort of

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handicap from having kids if they had [br]data that they couldn't raise kids,

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- so there's no reason why that [br]should apply to gay people.[br]- (woman) Yeah.