A new study hopes to provide definitive evidence about the well-being of children raised by same-sex parents, but opponents say the researchers have a biased and pre-determined agenda.
Six-year-old Ruben McSheen has two fathers, and his family is taking part in the research project.
"It's all anecdotal right now, but once you have a study that does measuring and some testing and stuff I am one hundred per cent confident that it will come out that there is no negative impacts," says Jason McSheen, one of Ruben's dads.
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Jason's partner, Adrian, hopes the study will also debunk theories about men having little natural parenting ability.
"It's obviously seen as a woman's domain when it is the kind of thing fathers need to be involved in, and at the end of the day, parenting is not a gender thing," he says.
Lead researcher Simon Crouch, from Melbourne University, says the study will fill an evidence vacuum that surrounds the issue.
It will probe the physical and mental well-being of the children that will be analysed as well as examining how they respond to taunts in the playground.
"Most of the research so far has been in Northern Europe and Northern America," Mr Crouch adds.
"...This research has shown that children of same sex attracted parents are doing really well in some aspects of their lives, (but) there is still more work that needs to be done," he says.
Moreover, the few international studies that have been done have only looked at small samples of 30 to 60 children.
The new research will have a sample size of up to 500 families, representing up to 750 children.
The Australian Christian Lobby's Jim Wallace has slammed the study, saying it is biased and has pre-determined outcomes.
"It needs to be research which is done in a balanced way with some academic rigour applied to it, that compares both homosexual and heterosexual parents from the same socio-economic groups and it ensures on the homosexual side that it is both gay and lesbian parents to ensure that the study is representative and useful," he says.
However, supporters of the study say there's plenty of that data available from vast body of research into children from heterosexual families.
