New Study: Americans Say Family Is Evolving and Same-Sex Parents Are Great

BY Diane Anderson-Minshall – Advocate.com

May 08 2013

Turns out the the critics of Murphy Brown — who had a child out of wedlock on TV and got lambasted by then Vice President Dan Quayle for doing so — were right about one thing: TV does have an impact on how Americans view the concept of family. According to a new study by uSamp and Oxygen Media, a full 87% of Americans believe the definition of a traditional family has evolved and 55% say there is no longer such a thing as a “traditional” family. Society is apparently becoming increasingly more comfortable with how family is defined and judged, as well as changing gender roles in the new family dynamic.

The study finds that Diff’rent Strokes (a ’70s series in which a single white guy adopted two black kids) may have been ahead of its time; it and other shows like Modern Family and The New Normal and even the Oxygen series I’m Having Their Baby (which featured a young mother choosing a gay couple to adopt her child last season) reflect how Americans see the world now.

Oxygen commissioned the study to coincide with their first docu-short film, Untold Stories of Motherhood, director Marilyn Agrelo’s look at the new modern family and how they develop their remarkable bonds of love, from open adoption to same-sex parenting.

The study always revealed that 82% of people define a “mother” as the woman who raised them rather than as the woman who gave birth to them (which was at 53%).

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