Gay Adoptn of Black Children Rais Concerns : NPR

Contents:

• 10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• PROCR FOR GAY COUPL LOOKG TO ADOPT
• GAY ADOPTN
• I WAS RAISED BY 2 GAY MEN. I STILL THK CHILDREN SERVE TO BE ADOPTED TO A HOME WH A MOTHER AND A FATHER | OPN
• STUDY: GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS MAKE GREAT ADOPTIVE PARENTS
• IT’S EASIER NOW FOR GAY MEN TO ADOPT. BUT THEY STILL FACE LOTS OF PHBACK, AND WEIRD QUTNS.
• GAY ADOPTN OF BLACK CHILDREN RAIS CONCERNS
• CAN GAY COUPL ADOPT? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS
• STATE ANTIGAY ADOPTN POLICI NEED TO GO
• ADOPTIVE GAY FATHER FAI: PARENT–CHILD RELATNSHIPS AND CHILDREN'S PSYCHOLOGIL ADJTMENT
• GAY COUPLE ACCED OF RAPG MULTIPLE ADOPTED CHILDREN WILL FACE TRIAL

10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

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. This will give you accs to our unique curriculum of more than a dozen lsons all created specifilly to gui gay men like you through each step of your private domtic fant adoptn, foster-adoptn, or ternatnal adoptn journey.

This lg, turn, paved the way for gay adoptn to bee legal across the March 2016, when Mississippi beme the last state to have s ban on same-sex marriage overtured, gay adoptn has been legal all 50 stat and Washgton, Course, It’s Not Que That Simple…Many stat have started passg bills that allow tax-fund child welfare agenci to legally discrimate agast prospective LGBTQ parents on the basis of relig objectns. Ten narrative studi volvg fay histori of 262 children of gay fathers and lbian mothers were evaluated statistilly rponse to Morrison's (2007) ncerns about Cameron's (2006) rearch that had volved three narrative studi.

PROCR FOR GAY COUPL LOOKG TO ADOPT

Dpe numero attempts to bias the rults favour of the null hypothis and allowg for up to 20 (of 63, 32%) dg errors, Cameron's (2006) hypothis that gay and lbian parents would be more likely to have gay, lbian, bisexual or unsure (of sexual orientatn) sons and dghters was nfirmed. Data om ethnographic sourc and om prev studi on gay and lbian parentg were re-examed and found to support the hypothis that social and parental fluenc may fluence the exprsn of non-heterosexual inti and/or behavur. METHODOLOGY: This is the first study to pare children who were adopted out of foster re by gay men, lbian women, and heterosexual upl, and to track their progrs over time, explas lead thor Jt Lavner, a doctoral ndidate at UCLA.

The rearchers followed 82 children Los Angel County -- 22 of whom were adopted by homosexual parents at the average age of 4 -- and evaluated them after two months, one year, and two years after they were placed wh their adoptive studi have prevly been done which children who were adopted by gay parents as fants, the children followed here started out wh a number of blogil and environmental risk factors actg agast them -- like premature birth, prenatal substance exposure, and abe or neglect -- which the rearchers intified om public rerds. What's more, the kids adopted by gay and lbian parents actually started out wh more risk factors, and were more likely to be of a different ethnicy than their adoptive parents, but after two years were on equal footg wh their heterosexually-adopted peers.

And there is still plenty of ristance to gay parents, as the petn by One Milln Moms agast the ver of Shn T and hband Stt Blokker Parents Magaze Parentg spoke wh four gay men who had all entered fatherhood the past 10 years through different means. Depew said when he and his -parent David Augte began rearchg surrogacy optns 2007, they learned the average budget for workg wh a surrogate the Uned Stat was $150, then they heard about agenci Mumbai and Delhi “that were actively advertisg to gay upl the U.

GAY ADOPTN

I fely remember the expectatn beg that dads don’t actually take leave, whether they’re gay or straight, ” he Angel Maldonado Lopez and Leonard Norton of Boston, who weled their then 7-year-old son Jse home through foster re, paterny leave was not ial, they said. Patterson and her -thors pot out that while numero studi have documented patterns of healthy velopment among children born to lbian and gay parents, very ltle rearch about adoptive gay and lbian fai has been reported. 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.

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. 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. The ACLU has found that the more legislators and the public get to hear the real-life stori of lbians and gay men who are buildg fai through adoptn and other means, the more succs we have featg anti-gay, anti-child adoptn proposals.

I WAS RAISED BY 2 GAY MEN. I STILL THK CHILDREN SERVE TO BE ADOPTED TO A HOME WH A MOTHER AND A FATHER | OPN

As a rult of the historic nature of the New Jersey settlement, which guarante that gay and heterosexual unmarried upl seekg to adopt will be evaluated by the same standards as married upl, right-wg anizatns immediately vowed to overturn the agreement the state legislature. For example, the Child Welfare League of Ameri, which sets natnal standards for children’s servic and is the olst and largt children’s advocy anizatn the untry, says that gays and lbians seekg to adopt should be evaluated jt like everybody else. But for others, who hear the persistent qutns at the office, dner parti and fay get-togethers, the matter n be far more gay men had rigned themselv to the ia that they would never be accepted by society as lovg parents and assumed they would never have children.

A Pew Rearch Center survey nducted July and released last week found for the first time that a majory of people surveyed — 52 percent — said that gay men and lbians should be allowed to adopt children, up om 46 percent 2008 and 38 percent 1999. C., Illois and Massachetts have shuttered adoptn servic rather than ply wh requirements that they nsir same-sex upl as adoptive a rult, even Democratic strongholds like Washgton, some gay men keep their dreams of havg children mostly to themselv.

STUDY: GAY ADOPTIVE PARENTS MAKE GREAT ADOPTIVE PARENTS

Hodg (which guaranteed same-sex upl’ right to marry) and the feral lg that overturned a ban on adoptn for LGBT dividuals Mississippi, married same-sex upl the Uned Stat now have the same adoptn rights as any heterosexual the fight over gay adoptn rights achieved a monumental step wh the lgs the U. One reason why people are terted gay rights and adoptn is not bee they want to adopt a child together — but bee one partner has already adopted a child and the other partner already acts as a parental figure that child’s life. 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.

"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.

IT’S EASIER NOW FOR GAY MEN TO ADOPT. BUT THEY STILL FACE LOTS OF PHBACK, AND WEIRD QUTNS.

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). 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.

"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. [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.

GAY ADOPTN OF BLACK CHILDREN RAIS CONCERNS

"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. Michael Lamb, a velopmental psychologist who provid expert ttimony the Proposn 8 se California over same-sex marriage, stated durg his ttimony before the District Court that rearch shows children raised by a gay or lbian parent are jt as likely to grow up well-adjted adults as children raised by heterosexual parents.

CAN GAY COUPL ADOPT? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Although has nsistently been shown that children wh lbian mothers do not differ om children tradnal fai wh rpect to psychologil adjtment or sex-typed behavr (Goldberg, 2010; Patterson, 2006, 2009), the circumstanc of children wh gay fathers are somewhat different. Moreover, the wir social environment n have a marked impact on children's psychologil well-beg, and children wh gay fathers may be exposed to greater prejudice and discrimatn than children wh lbian mothers bee gay father fai posss the addnal nontradnal feature of beg head by men (Golombok & Tasker, 2010).

WHY GAY PARENTS MAY BE THE BT PARENTS

Neverthels, has been suggted that the genr velopment of children wh gay fathers may differ om that of children wh lbian mothers or heterosexual parents due to the prence of two male parents and the absence of a female parent om the home. Goldberg, Kashy, and Smh (2012) have postulated that children wh gay fathers may show ls sex-typed behavr than children wh heterosexual parents rultg om a ls sex-typed fay environment, and girls gay father fai may show ls sex-typed behavr than girls lbian mother fai due to the absence of a female role mol om the recent years, a growg number of gay father fai have been created through adoptn (Brodzsky & Pertman, 2011). Inial vtigatns of adoptive gay father fai have reported posive fay functng wh rpect to qualy of parentg and children's psychologil well-beg (Averett, Nalavany, & Ryan, 2009; Erich, Kanenberg, Case, Allen, & Bogdanos, 2009; Erich, Lng, & Kdle, 2005; Lng, Erich, & Kanenberg, 2005; Ryan, 2007).

STATE ANTIGAY ADOPTN POLICI NEED TO GO

Usg parent and teacher qutnnair, prchool children adopted fancy by gay fathers the Uned Stat were found to be as well adjted as those adopted by lbian or heterosexual parents, wh no differenc parentg strs, parental disciple, or parental relatnship satisfactn acrdg to fay type. This study ntribut to this emergg body of rearch by vtigatg larger sampl of gay, lbian, and heterosexual adoptive fai the Uned Kgdom g standardized terview and observatnal and qutnnaire measur of parental well-beg, qualy of parent–child relatnships, child adjtment, and child sex-typed behavr, admistered to parents, children, and a theoretil perspective, the study is found upon a velopmental systems approach (Lerner, Lew-Bizan, & Warren, 2011), whereby bidirectnal relatns between dividuals, the fay, and the wir social world, cludg historil time and place, are viewed as fluential velopment.

Dpe the monly held assumptn that gay fathers may be ls nurturg than lbian or heterosexual mothers, and the possibily that they may be exposed to greater prejudice, existg rearch suggts that gay father fai would not differ om lbian or heterosexual fai wh rpect to parentg procs such as warmth and sensivy that are associated wh children's psychologil adjtment. It was also hypothized, based on the growg body of rearch showg that fay stcture is ls predictive of child adjtment than the qualy of parent–child relatnships (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010; Golombok, 2000, 2013; Lansford, Ceballo, Abbey, & Stewart, 2001; Patterson, 2006, 2009), that parentg procs would be more strongly associated wh child adjtment than fay is the first study of adoptive gay and lbian fai to be nducted outsi the Uned Stat and is of particular tert as a change legislatn the Uned Kgdom that me to force 2005 has enabled gay and lbian upl to bee jot legal parents of their adopted children.

ADOPTIVE GAY FATHER FAI: PARENT–CHILD RELATNSHIPS AND CHILDREN'S PSYCHOLOGIL ADJTMENT

Wh the aid of the Brish Associatn of Adoptn and Fosterg, adoptn agenci that had placed children wh same-sex parents assisted wh recment by ntactg gay, lbian, and heterosexual adoptive parents who had adopted children through their agency. There was no difference between fay typ the number of hours per week children spent nonparental 1Means, Standard Deviatn, F, p, and d Valu for Socmographic Informatn by Fay TypeGay (G)Lbian (L)Heterosexual (H)G vs. 0% of children gay, lbian, and heterosexual parent fai, rpectively, had no ntact, wh no signifint difference between fay typ, and the large majory of those wh ntact exchanged letters only, once or twice per prentg mographic data for each parent dividually, the parent who was most volved wh the child on a day-to-day basis acrdg to parent reports, and agreed by two terviewers (LM and SJ), was labeled Parent A and the parent was labeled Parent B, the lbian and gay fai.

The analys foced on the followg parisons to addrs specific qutns: (a) gay vers lbian to exame whether fai head by male same-sex parents differed om fai head by female same-sex parents ntrollg for adoptn and (b) gay vers heterosexual to exame whether fai head by male same-sex parents differed om tradnal heterosexual fai ntrollg for adoptn. The parisons between gay and lbian fai showed no signifint differenc between fay 2Means, Standard Deviatn (M), β, p, and d Valu for Parents' Psychologil Well-Beg, Warmth, Interactn, Conflict, and Mutualy by Fay TypeGay (G)Lbian (L)Heterosexual (H)G vs. The posive fdgs for psychologil well-beg are nsistent wh those of Goldberg and lleagu (Goldberg & Smh, 2011; Goldberg, Smh, & Kashy, 2010) relatn to gay and lbian upl across the 1st year of adoptive parenthood, and Farr et al.

(2011) wh rpect to gay and lbian adoptive parents wh a prchool or early school-age child, who found siar parental mental health out across lbian mother, gay father, and heterosexual parent terms of parentg, gay fathers showed higher levels of warmth, greater amounts of teractn, and lower levels of disciplary aggrsn as asssed by terview, as well as higher levels of rponsivens as asssed by direct observatn, than the heterosexual parents. There was no difference the proportn of children obtag sr above cutoff between fay more posive out for gay father fai terms of parental well-beg and parent–child relatnships may be associated wh characteristics of the parents or of the children. It seems likely, therefore, that the screeng procs is pecially strgent for gay upl who wish to adopt, rultg even higher levels of psychologil well-beg and mment to parentg among adoptive gay fathers than adoptive lbian or heterosexual parents.

GAY COUPLE ACCED OF RAPG MULTIPLE ADOPTED CHILDREN WILL FACE TRIAL

Moreover, unlike heterosexual upl, may be relevant that gay fathers have not experienced the strs of fertily and failed fertily treatments, and have not turned to adoptn as a send choice their qut for a is also nceivable, due to ncerns regardg adoptn by gay men, that children wh higher levels of psychologil problems were least likely to be placed wh gay upl.