Gay rights, relig eedom, and the battle over adoptn

Contents:

• PROCR FOR GAY COUPL LOOKG TO ADOPT
• 10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• IN GOOD FAH? U.S. LEGAL BATTLE OVER GAY ADOPTN TENSIFI
• GAY RIGHTS, RELIG EEDOM, AND THE BATTLE OVER ADOPTN
• OUR PARENTS ARE GAY. ARE OUR FAI GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE SUPREME COURT?
• CAN GAY COUPL ADOPT? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• GAY ADOPTN: HOW MON IS GAY ADOPTN AND IS LEGAL?

PROCR FOR GAY COUPL LOOKG TO ADOPT

Gay and lbian upl have been expandg their fai through adoptn for a long time, and as legislatn has changed over the years, more optns have bee available.

While every gay uple's adoptn procs is unique, there are some standard procr and steps every adoptive parent mt go through, and facts and rourc that n be helpful when nsirg adoptn. In the past—and likely still today some areas of the untry—some gay upl have rorted to lyg about their stat so they uld adopt.

10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

When a gay uple adopts, is mon for one partner to adopt and the send to then apply to the urt as a send parent or -parent.

A uple do not need to have a legally-regnized relatnship orr to pursue a send parent adoptn, which mak an appealg optn for gay upl who choose to not get married or enter to a civil unn. Many of the ncerns center around unrstandg sexual orientatn and tablishg whether children will velop emotnal problems due to havg gay parents. Know that there has not been a sgle study showg that the children of gay or lbian parents are disadvantaged any signifint rpect.

Some gay upl fd that their parents—who may have been upset at one time about their children's sexualy—e around when grandchildren enter the picture. Hopefully, you'll have lots of support your ner circle, but numero onle rourc ​are available for new gay and lbian parents to help your recently-expand fay to grow and flourish. Dpe the fact that gay adoptn grows more monplace every day, the road ahead may be difficult and filled wh obstacl, so make sure you're both on solid footg and sure about your cisn before you start the adoptn procs.

IN GOOD FAH? U.S. LEGAL BATTLE OVER GAY ADOPTN TENSIFI

Thanks to a progrsg social shift as LGBT rights ntue to ga ground, gay adoptn is more accsible than ever to prospective parents like you. To help you out, we’ve piled some same-sex adoptn statistics and facts om multiple homosexual adoptn studi for your tn. Time and time aga, gay adoptn rearch has dited that there are no trimental effects to children who are raised by same-sex parents.

As an extensn of this lg, a law banng gay adoptn Mississippi was overturned 2016, makg jot LGBT adoptn legal all 50 stat. Cens om that year, there were 43, 000 married same-sex upl wh children, while 71, 000 of the gay upl wh children were unmarried. Dpe the challeng that existed for gay parents hopg to adopt jt 10 years ago, many children found their forever fay — through an fant adoptn or foster re adoptn — wh an LGBT uple.

GAY RIGHTS, RELIG EEDOM, AND THE BATTLE OVER ADOPTN

In a standout LGBT adoptn fact, California alone had more than 16, 000 adopted children livg wh gay and lbian parents. In 2007, gay and lbian parents were raisg three percent of foster children (14, 000 children) the Uned Stat — on par wh the natnal statistic sayg 3 percent of the populatn is homosexual.

OUR PARENTS ARE GAY. ARE OUR FAI GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE SUPREME COURT?

Studi show that banng gay and lbian foster re would st the untry $87 to $130 ln lost child re, wh dividual stat losg as much as $27 ln. For gay upl adoptg, the statistics actually apply to every child raised by LGBT parents — whether they’re adopted or blogilly related to their same-sex parents. Of urse, ’s important to learn more about how the same-sex adoptn procs works and to speak wh an adoptn profsnal before mtg to this procs, but the gay adoptn statistics n help you realize that you’re not alone.

Today, 4 percent of adopted children and 3 percent of foster children are raised by gay and lbian parents, and 2 ln more LGBTQ dividuals are terted adoptg.

Throughout the history of gay adoptn, same-sex upl have often faced barriers to growg their fai and have had to fight for equal adoptn rights. Combed wh the feral marriage equaly lg 2015, this urt cisn now protects the right for gay upl to adopt throughout the Uned Stat. However, like oppose-sex upl, there may still be rtrictns on adoptn laws for gay upl based on maral stat, om state to state.

CAN GAY COUPL ADOPT? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

While the benefs of adoptn are clear, gay adoptive parents will likely also face many of the same challeng that heterosexual adoptive parents experience: addrsg their children’s racial or cultural inty, managg birth parent relatnships an open adoptn, talkg to their child about adoptn and simply adjtg to parenthood. False Ias About Gay Adoptn’s Effects on Children: While has monly been ed as an argument agast gay and lbian adoptn, studi have shown that same-sex adoptn do not have a negative impact on children. In addn, there are no signifint differenc the velopment of genr inty and sexual orientatn between children of gay and lbian parents and children of heterosexual parents, acrdg to rearch prentg gay adoptn facts and same-sex adoptn statistics.

Conservative anizatns that claim to poe “tradnal fay valu” have promised to lnch a natnwi mpaign 1998 to enact state-level legislatn to prohib adoptn by lbians and gay men. The threats of anti-gay and anti-child legislatn have e rponse to the creased willgns of urts, policymakers and legislators to regnize that lbians and gay men n be good parents and should be evaluated on their parentg skills, rather than their sexual orientatn.

GAY ADOPTN: HOW MON IS GAY ADOPTN AND IS LEGAL?

The recent settlement of an ACLU lawsu New Jersey, where the State agreed to allow lbian and gay upl to adopt unr the same standards applied to married upl, has creased the right wg’s foc on this issue. Although all three approach are motivated by anti-gay bias, the send and third disguise a b and make the bate more plex. Bee nobody has the right to adopt, our opposn to anti-gay adoptn bills is not based on “gay rights” and we should not ame our arguments that way.

Nor is there any reason to make parisons between gay/lbian parents as a group vers heterosexual parents as a group. The Amerin Psychology Associatn, a recent report reviewg the rearch, observed that “not a sgle study has found children of gay or lbian parents to be disadvantaged any signifint rpect relative to children of heterosexual parents” and nclud that “home environments provid by gay and lbian parents are as likely as those provid by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth. ”7 That’s why the Child Welfare League of Ameri, the natn’s olst children’s advocy anizatn, argu that gays and lbians seekg to adopt should be evaluated jt like other adoptive applints.

All of the available evince monstrat that the sexual orientatn of parents has no impact on the sexual orientatn of their children and that children of lbian and gay parents are no more likely than any other child to grow up to be gay. There is some evince that children of gays and lbians are more tolerant of diversy, but this is certaly not a disadvantage. Of urse, some children of lbians and gay men will grow up to be gay, as will some children of heterosexual parents.

Children who are raised by lbian or gay parents will be subjected to harassment and will be rejected by their peers. The study nclud that “a child’s risk of beg molted by his or her relative’s heterosexual partner is over 100 tim greater than by someone who might be intifiable as beg homosexual, lbian, or bisexual.

For a more -pth discsn of the rearch on lbian and gay parentg, see Lbian And Gay Parentg, Amerin Psychologil Associatn (1995).

For a more extensive discsn of the policy and legal issu surroundg the qutn of adoptns by lbians and gay men, see Issu In Gay And Lbian Adoptn, Child Welfare League of Ameri (1995).