Children raised by lesbian parents fare as well as they would in heterosexual households, new research suggests.

The finding, which comes from a review of essentially all studies on the topic of same-sex parents and the health of their children, helps to tease out politics and science on this highly divisive issue. In general, kids in both heterosexual and lesbian households had similar levels of academic achievement, number of friends and overall well-being.

Whether or not kids from homosexual households are more likely to have a non-heterosexual orientation is still unknown. But if there is a genetic component to sexual orientation, it would make sense that kids born to a lesbian mom, say, would be more likely than other kids to be homosexual, scientists say.

At the end of the day, what matters to kids is far deeper than parents’ gender or sexual orientation, the research suggests.

‘The family type that is best for children is one that has responsible, committed, stable parenting,’ said study researcher Judith Stacey of New York University. ‘Two parents are, on average, better than one, but one really good parent is better than two not-so-good ones.’

Here are some highlights of the findings:

In a study of […]