The Denver Daily News reports this morning on an article by Dr. Tracyce L. Hansen that reports

… children raised by gay parents are between four and 10 times more likely to develop a “non-heterosexual preference” than other children.

“There are a number of non-genetic mechanisms through which homosexuality could be transmitted from one generation to the next,” Hansen writes in the article.

Of course, Focus on The Family had plenty to say on the matter…

Maier said research indicates that children of gay parents are more likely to engage in behavior that does not reflect their gender. He said boys from gay parents will have trouble identifying as a man and girls will have a difficult time identifying as a woman.

The News did ask The Gill Foundation and The GLBT Center of Colorado, however, both organizations declined comment.

The gayzette did call Carlos Martinez, director of The Center, to find out why he did not comment on the issue. He is out of the office until Friday. We did speak with Hope Wisneki, deputy director of The Center, who asked to call us back after researching the matter.

We’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE NO. 1: Thanks to gayzetteblog.com reader Andy for passing along this fun tale by Savage Love author Dan Savage. He tells the story, in Act II in This American Life, of how his son is definitely not gay.

UPDATE NO. 2: We just e-mailed Joanne Kron at The Gill Foundation also asking why the organization declined comment. We’ll let you know what she has to say.

UPDATE NO. 3: Turns out Mindy Barton, The Center’s legal director, did respond to The Denver Daily News, but it seems like after the paper’s deadline. The Center’s Hope Wisneski is forwarding Barton’s comments to us. Also, GLAAD is in communication with The Denver Daily News for a follow up story. We’ll see how this plays out.

UPDATE NO. 4: Here are Mindy Barton’s comments to The Denver Daily News:

“I am not aware of the specific study being used by the supporters of Proposition 8 in California. However, The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement in 2002 in support of gay and lesbian parenting which called for equal access to co-parenting and second parent adoption rights for gay and lesbian parents. It stated that children deserve the permanence and security that is provided by having two legally defined parents, and the Academy fully supported legal adoption of children by coparents or second parents.”

“Additionally, here in Colorado the second parent adoption law went into effect in August 2007, which provides a legal procedure for non-married individuals to obtain all the rights and obligations of being an adoptive parent of a child with consent of the child’s sole legal parent. This has dramatically strengthened families in Colorado. It is my belief that anytime children have two loving, supportive, legally recognized parents it is good not only for those
children, but also for society as a whole.”

“The idea that gay or lesbian parents somehow ‘create’ gay or lesbian children seems to me to be a far-fetched scheme by the supporters of Proposition 8 to instill an irrational fear in California voters.”

UPDATE NO. 5: The Denver Daily News will be publishing a follow-up story tomorrow morning and will include a variety of comments from The Center (see above) and other gay organizations, as well as, an interview with a doctor who works with gay parents who are raising children. Daily News writer Peter Marcus said with a chuckle, “Every gay organization in America contacted me today.” He went on to say his publication rarely does follow up stories but the staff believed they needed to report the comments from the gay community after publishing thoughts from the Religious Right.

Stay tuned!