Even though every mom and dad do their best job to raise their children, there’s a new report that suggests gay fathers are more active with their children. A study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Quebec looked at how gay fathers interacted with their children in comparison with heterosexual couples. The results found that gay fathers apparently do a better job of engaging with their kids and meeting their social and everyday needs.

Lead researcher Eric Feuge of the University of Quebec in Montreal collected data from 46 different families, which also included 92 gay fathers and 46 children under the age of 9. Most of the gay fathers in the study had adopted children who were previously removed from their biological families.

According to the Montreal Gazette, Feuge said that during his research, he wanted to see how gay parents interacted with their children compared to other parents. He also looked at how gay couples distribute parental work and to see if their parenting skills had any effect on the adaptation of their children. He also noted that the study looked into why some fathers are heavily involved in their children’s lives, while others are not.

Feuge says while there was a high degree of engagement in all types of parental roles, in gay couples, there was one father who would do more work than the other. This led the researchers to believe that even with homosexual couples, one person takes a primary caregiver role while the other takes a secondary one. He also said that there is a wider range of expression with gay dads compared to other couples.

Feuge told LGBTQ Nation in a new interview, “They could be playmates, caregivers, protectors, role models, morality guides. What’s really interesting is that they don’t conform to the roles of conventional fathers. They were able to redefine and propose new models of cultural notions of paternity and masculinity."

Many gay parents have received more recognition in both their communities and in the media in recent years. Bravo television personality Andy Cohen recently welcomed a baby boy while other celebrities such as Elton John, Neil Patrick Harris, Jillian Michaels, and Matt Bomer often like to share behind-the-scenes photos and stories of their everyday lives as gay parents.

It’s also been noted that over a third of children adopted under the social services umbrella in Montreal have been adopted by gay parents. It became legal for same-sex couples to adopt in the province of Quebec back in 2002.

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