LGBT Parenting Policy in the United States

Social Science Research

Over 25 years of scientific research has shown that children of gay parents are just as healthy and well-adjusted as other children. Studies have focused on a variety of topics, including psychological, emotional, social, and cognitive development, as well as quality of parenting and gender and sexual development of the children. All reputable studies have found that the sexual orientation of parents does not affect children's development, gender identity, or sexual orientation in any way, except for that in some cases children raised by lesbian parents may feel less constrained by gender stereotypes than children raised by heterosexual parents. The factors critical to a child's development-quality of parenting, quality of relationship between the parents (if there is more than one), and availability of adequate economic resources-are not impacted by a parent's sexual orientation.

Mainstream Experts' Support for Gay Parenting

Scientific evidence has prompted numerous mainstream health and child welfare organizations to adopt policies opposing restrictions on lesbian and gay parenting, including the following:

• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (1999)
• American Academy of Family Physicians (2002)
• American Academy of Pediatrics (2002)
• American Bar Association (1995, 1999, 2003)
• American Psychiatric Association (1997, 2002)
• American Psychoanalytic Association (2002)
• American Psychological Association (1976, 2004)
• American Medical Association (2004)
• Child Welfare League of America (1988)
• National Association of Social Workers (2002)
• North American Council on Adoptable Children (1998; amend.2002; amend.2005)

Adoption

Gay and lesbian parents are raising 4% of all adopted children in the United States, approximately 65,500 children. Three percent are being raised by single lesbians and gay men and 1% by same-sex couples. Gay parents are raising adopted children all over the United States, but are most highly concentrated in New England, Mid-Atlantic, and West coast states, and least concentrated in the Midwest and the South. Massachusetts, California, New Mexico, and Alaska have the highest percentages of lesbian and gay adoptive parents.

Individual Adoption

Decisions about adoption are generally made by child welfare professionals and family court judges at the local level. Accordingly, few states have laws specifically relating to adoption by gay individuals. Florida is the only state that has a law specifically disallowing gay individuals from adopting. In Nebraska, although no statutory law exists, a 1995 directive of the then director of the Department of Social Service prohibits adoption by gay individuals as well as individuals who are cohabitating in an unmarried relationship. In addition, North Dakota law permits child-placing agencies to discriminate against prospective adoptive parents based on religious or moral objection, while Utah law gives preference to married couples over single adults in adoption placement decisions. Both of these laws may have the effect of restricting adoption by gay individuals.

Conversely, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York have policies prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in the adoption process. In addition, because of their statutes or appellate court decisions permitting second-parent adoption, an individual's sexual orientation is not a basis for exclusion in Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

For more information on laws and policies regulating individual adoption, visit our publications at http://www.familyequality.org/resources/publications.html.

Second-Parent Adoption

Second-parent adoption (also called co-parent adoption) is a legal procedure that allows a same-sex partner to adopt his or her partner's biological or adoptive child without terminating the first parent's rights, similar to the stepparent adoption process for legal spouses. As a result of the second-parent adoption, both parents have legally recognized parental rights and responsibilities in relation to their child. For example, a second-parent adoption allows both parents to make medical decisions for their child and is important to ensure health insurance coverage for the child. Second-parent adoption also fosters a child's emotional and developmental health by recognizing the child's actual relationship to both coparents in the child's family. Second-parent adoptions also protect the rights of the same-sex, second parent by ensuring that he or she will continue to have a legally recognized parental relationship to the child if the couple separates or if the biological (or original adoptive parent) dies or becomes incapacitated.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights originated the concept of second-parent adoption in the mid-1980s in San Francisco, California, where the first such adoptions were granted. Since then, although the prevalence of second-parent adoptions can be difficult to track because most are approved at the local level, a growing number of states and local jurisdictions are granting them. In Washington, D.C., and ten states-California, Colorado, Connecticut,  Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont-appellate courts or state statutes have established that second-parent adoptions are available statewide.

Additionally, some local jurisdictions in Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Hawai'i, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia have granted second-parent adoptions.

Conversely, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin specifically disallow second-parent adoption statewide. Adoption restrictions on gay individuals and same-sex couples in Florida, Mississippi, and Utah also have the effect of restricting secondparent adoptions in those states.

For more information on laws and policies regulating second-parent adoptions, visit our publications at http://www.familyequality.org/resources/publications.html.

Mainstream Experts' Support for Second-Parent Adoption

• American Academy of Pediatrics (2002)
• American Bar Association (1995, 1999, 2003)
• American Psychiatric Association (1997, 2002)
• American Psychological Association (1976, 2004)
• American Medical Association (2004)
• National Association of Social Workers (2002)

Foster Parenting

Census 2000 estimates indicate that 6% of children in non-kin care, with caretakers other than extended family members, are being raised by gay, lesbian, and bisexual foster parents, a total of 14,134 of the nearly 500,000 children living in foster care on any given day. Gay and lesbian foster parents are more likely to raise children with disabilities-32% of all foster children with disabilities reside with gay and lesbian parents.

Like adoption, foster parenting determinations generally are made at the local level, and few states have laws or policies specifically regulating foster parenting by gay people. Nebraska is the only state that expressly prohibits foster parenting

by gay individuals through a 1995 directive of the then director of the Department of Social Services. The directive also restricts foster parenting by individuals who are cohabitating in an unmarried relationship, which may have the effect of preventing same-sex partners from fostering children. Utah law similarly prohibits foster parenting by unmarried, cohabitating individuals, in addition to giving preference to married couples over single adults in foster care placement decisions. In North Dakota, law allows child-placing agencies to discriminate against prospective foster parents based on religious or moral objection. Although the laws in Utah and North Dakota do not restrict gay foster parenting expressly, they may have that impact.

On the other hand, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon all have laws or policies that prohibit discrimination against gay individuals in the foster parenting process.

For more information on laws and policies regulating foster parenting, visit our publications at http://www.familyequality.org/resources/publications.html.

Mainstream Experts' Support for Gay Foster Parenting

• American Psychiatric Association (1997, 2002)
• American Psychological Association (1976, 2004)
• National Association of Social Workers (2002)
• North American Council on Adoptable Children (1998; amend.2002; amend.2005)

Resources and Publications

Gates, G. et al. (2007). Adoption and Foster Care by Gay and Lesbian Parents in the United States. Los Angeles: TheToo High a Price: The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law and The Urban Institute. Available at http://www.law.ucla.edu/WilliamsInstitute/publications/Policy-Adoption-index.html.

Cooper, L., & Cates, P. (2006). Too High a Price: The Case Against Restricting Gay Parenting. New York: American Civil Liberties Union. Available at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/27496pub20061113.html.

Cianciotto, J. (2005). Hispanic and Latino Same-Sex Households in the United States: A Report from the 200 Census. New York: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Latino/a Coalition for Justics. Available at http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/HispanicLatino_households.

Dang, A., & Frazer, S. (2004). Black Same-Sex Households in the United States: A Report From the 2000 Census. New York: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Black Justics Coalition. Available at http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/blackcouples_census.

National Center for Lesbian Rights (2004). Adoption by Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Parents: An Overview of Current Law. Available at http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/adptn0204.pdf?docID=1221.