In Russia, sociologists do not have reliable statistical data as to the number of same-sex unions and the number of children being brought up in these families, and non-Russian studies on the topic are flawed and misleading. Russians are said to be antagonistic to the idea of children being raised in same-sex households. People are concerned over the question of possible impairment of children's sense of gender identity, their propensity toward a particular sexual orientation, or their physical or mental well-being. The authors consider the difficulties that arise in a sociological survey of a same-sex family. The first and most important complication is the difficulty of access to the object of the study. A second characteristic of the studies of sexual minorities is that in contacts between a heterosexual interviewer and the respondents, it is virtually impossible to avoid distorting the data. In consideration of these difficulties, the authors conducted a study on the characteristics of social parenthood in same-sex families by indirect rather than direct means: via Internet resources, articles, and other documents that have been compiled spontaneously rather than for purposes of research. On the whole, social parenthood in same-sex families has been a great deal less interesting to scientists than it has to journalists and TV personalities. A summary of the results is presented. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 2 notes.)