California still has an anti-gay marriage law on the books. Voters uld remove next year - CBS Sacramento

Contents:

• 10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT
• CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

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.

WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS

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.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

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.

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.

Time and time aga, gay adoptn rearch has dited that there are no trimental effects to children who are raised by same-sex parents. 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.

RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.

As long as you meet the state requirements to adopt, you n move forward wh your adoptn procs.Most stat allow gay adoptn for dividuals, married upl and upl a domtic unn.

MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

However, for unmarried upl who want to adopt a child (eher heterosexual or homosexual), ’s not always possible to do so jotly. In many of the stat where gay adoptn was illegal for so long, was bee requirements were based on maral stat, not sexual orientatn. While is unnstutnal for married same-sex upl to be nied the right to adopt by a state agency, unfortunately, there are several stat which have passed laws agast gay adoptn based on relig eedom.

In fact, most of the important moments the history of gay adoptn have only happened the last 40 the 1970s and 1980s (when the gay rights movement really began to take hold), homosexualy was somethg that was rarely discsed and even illegal some plac. Add to that the secrecy surroundg adoptn general, and you n see why gay adoptn history is srce until the send half of the 20th century.

It wasn’t until the civil rights era of the 1970s and 1980s that the history of gay adoptn and gay civil rights general really started to mark monumental events. As LGBT dividuals began to fight for their right to marry and have children, they also faced discrimatn om heterosexual and homosexual dividuals alike. The first step towards equaly gay adoptn me as dividual stat passed laws to make homosexual marriage legal, wh Massachetts beg the first state to do so 2003.

TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT

9), Pope Benedict lled gay marriage a threat "to the future of humany self, " cg the need for children to have heterosexual rearch on fai head by gays and lbians don't back up the dire assertns.

In fact, some ways, gay parents may brg talents to the table that straight parents don' parents "tend to be more motivated, more mted than heterosexual parents on average, bee they chose to be parents, " said Abbie Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark Universy Massachetts who rearch gay and lbian parentg. Gays and lbians rarely bee parents by accint, pared wh an almost 50 percent accintal pregnancy rate among heterosexuals, Goldberg said. "And while rearch dit that kids of gay parents show few differenc achievement, mental health, social functng and other measur, the kids may have the advantage of open-mdns, tolerance and role mols for equable relatnships, acrdg to some rearch.

) [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]Adoptg the needitGay adoptn recently ed ntroversy Illois, where Catholic Chari adoptn servic cid November to cease offerg servic bee the state refed fundg unls the groups agreed not to discrimate agast gays and lbians.

CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT

Acrdg to a 2007 report by the Williams Instute and the Urban Instute, 65, 000 kids were livg wh adoptive gay parents between 2000 and 2002, wh another 14, 000 foster hom head by gays and lbians. Donaldson Adoptn Instute found that, of gay and lbian adoptns at more than 300 agenci, 10 percent of the kids placed were olr than 6 — typilly a very difficult age to adopt out. Sixty percent of gay and lbian upl adopted across rac, which is important given that mory children the foster system tend to lger.

More than half of the kids adopted by gays and lbians had special report didn't pare the adoptn preferenc of gay upl directly wh those of heterosexual upl, said thor David Brodzsky, rearch director at the Instute and -edor of "Adoptn By Lbians and Gay Men: A New Dimensn of Fay Diversy" (Oxford Universy Prs, 2011). But rearch suggts that gays and lbians are more likely than heterosexuals to adopt olr, special-needs and mory children, he said.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

Part of that uld be their own preferenc, and part uld be bee of discrimatn by adoptn agenci that puts more difficult children wh what seworkers see as "ls sirable" matter how you slice , Brodzsky told LiveScience, gays and lbians are highly terted adoptn as a group. "When you thk about the 114, 000 children who are eed for adoptn who ntue to live foster re and who are not beg readily adopted, the goal is to crease the pool of available, terted and well-traed dividuals to parent the children, " Brodzsky addn, Brodzsky said, there's evince to suggt that gays and lbians are pecially acceptg of open adoptns, where the child retas some ntact wh his or her birth parents.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

"Intertgly, we fd that a small percentage, but enough to be noteworthy, [of birth mothers] make a nsc cisn to place wh gay men, so they n be the only mother their child's life, " Brodzsky parentgRearch has shown that the kids of same-sex upl — both adopted and blogil kids — fare no worse than the kids of straight upl on mental health, social functng, school performance and a variety of other life-succs a 2010 review of virtually every study on gay parentg, New York Universy soclogist Judh Stacey and Universy of Southern California soclogist Tim Biblarz found no differenc between children raised hom wh two heterosexual parents and children raised wh lbian parents. "There's no doubt whatsoever om the rearch that children wh two lbian parents are growg up to be jt as well-adjted and succsful" as children wh a male and a female parent, " Stacey told is very ltle rearch on the children of gay men, so Stacey and Biblarz uldn't draw nclns on those fai.

But Stacey spects that gay men "will be the bt parents on average, " she 's a speculatn, she said, but if lbian parents have to really plan to have a child, 's even harr for gay men. [6 Genr Myths Bted]Nurturg toleranceIn fact, the only nsistent plac you fd differenc between how kids of gay parents and kids of straight parents turn out are issu of tolerance and open-mdns, acrdg to Goldberg. In a paper published 2007 the Amerin Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Goldberg nducted -pth terviews wh 46 adults wh at least one gay parent.

"The dividuals feel like their perspectiv on fay, on genr, on sexualy have largely been enhanced by growg up wh gay parents, " Goldberg 33-year-old man wh a lbian mother told Goldberg, "I feel I'm a more open, well-round person for havg been raised a nontradnal fay, and I thk those that know me would agree.