LGBTQ+ Adoptn | Gay Adoptn Support | PACT

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON: 10 WAYS WHICH THE UK HAS CHANGED
• GAY ADOPTN: WHAT ARE MY OPTNS?
• LBIAN AND GAY FOSTER RE AND ADOPTN: WHAT’S CHANGED OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS?
• MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• 10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

GAY RIGHTS 50 YEARS ON: 10 WAYS WHICH THE UK HAS CHANGED

This was particularly te of gay dads, many of whom thought their sexual inty was patible wh parenthood – spe havg always felt paternal. Rearch published by CoramBAAF actually suggts that gay fathers show greater levels of teractn wh their child than other typ of parents. The CoramBAAF Bookshop has a range of books for parents and children themed around adoptn and fosterg, wh a specific topic area for lbian and gay fai.

GAY ADOPTN: WHAT ARE MY OPTNS?

Speakg durg the parliamentary bate the Hoe of Lords, Barons O’Catha said: "By extendg the tegory of would-be adopters to clu homosexual upl of both genrs and habg heterosexuals, I ntend that the Bill is now beg ed as an stment of social engeerg... And Cardal Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic Church England and Wal, wrote to Cabet misters sayg Catholic adoptn agenci "would not be able to rec and nsir homosexual upl as potential adoptive parents. Most lbian or gay applints who were approved were able to do so bee they were sgle rers who hid their sexualy, whereas those who were open about largely received negative and prejudicial attus.

LBIAN AND GAY FOSTER RE AND ADOPTN: WHAT’S CHANGED OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS?

Dorian Jabri and Jane Skeat produced their report; Fosterg and Adoptn by Lbians and Gay Men, the first UK publitn to argue that the opposn to LGBTQ+ people fosterg/adoptg was unfound and based on discrimatory stereotyp. Whilst this was a huge step forward, was the very same year that Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act 1987/88 was passed by Thatcher’s Conservativ; ‘A lol thory shall not promote the teachg any mataed school of the acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship’.

Thatcher said herself at the time that children who were tght they have a right to be gay were “beg cheated of a sound start life”. It was hugely protted by LGBTQ+ mpaigners at the time, as gave agenci who were already opposed to gay or lbian rers a lawful jtifitn for dog so, as well as makg agenci who were more generally quiet about the topic too nervo to approve any of the applints. The ripple effect of this legislatn ed the formatn of the natnal Lbian & Gay Foster & Adoptive Parents Network, to provi support and mpaign for equal rights.

Publitns released big stori g harmful language wh no proper verifitn of their claims (for example, the Sunday Exprs claimed children were ‘beg hand over to homosexual upl… spe expert advice that the youngsters may grow up to bee sexually viant themselv’), and the Government published a damagg paper on fay placement unr the Children Act 1989 which stated that ‘the chosen way of life of some adults may mean that they would not be able to provi a suable environment for the re and nurture of a child. ’ It ma the claim that ‘No one has a right to be a foster parent’ and that ‘Equal rights and gay rights polici have no place fosterg servic.

MANY BRONS HAVE CHANGED THEIR MDS ON GAY MARRIAGE

Helen Cosis Brown published papers the Adoptn & Fosterg journal examg the apparent nflict between the rights of foster children to receive good-qualy home environments and the rights of gay and lbian applints to be fairly asssed, argug that they uld -exist, pecially seeg as the applints had proved their abily to be extremely pable of providg excellent hom. The Lbian & Gay Foster & Adoptive Parents Network reported a survey of their members that many felt they had to te their social worker on sexual inty as they appeared unfortable, and long-term fosterg or adoptn was not weled as an optn. Gay foster rer Don Smart stated a 1991 Communy Care bate that he and his partner were required to unrgo psychiatric ttg (somethg heterosexual applints did not have to do), and other rearch at the time nfirmed LGBTQ+ applints were subject to more scty.

As gay marriage was illegal, this clearly rerced the ia that LGBTQ+ people should only be adoptg as sgle people – and as a last rort.

Throughout the mid 90s, numbers of approved LGBTQ+ rers were growg, but 1994, The Children Society faced a sndal where they were exposed for operatg a policy which tomatilly rejected all applitns om lbian or gay foster rers. In 1999, Stephen Hicks and Ja McDermott -eded the book Lbian and Gay Fosterg and Adoptn: Extraordary yet ordary, which was overseen by multiple LGBTQ+ fosterg and adoptn support and mpaign groups. Gay men exprsed that they were subject to the harmful misnceptn that men uld not or should not be the primary rers of children, pecially gay men who uld pose a sexual risk.

10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Then 2002, parliamentary bat on the Adoptn and Children Act were ntroversial – wh some argug that adoptns by lbian and gay upl should be outlawed or should be a plete last rort, whilst others argued LGBTQ+ applints should not be treated any differently. However, the general nsens was that the prry should go: 1) married upl 2) unmarried upl 3) gay upl; the heteronormative stance still beg the preferable one. Organisatns such as the Christian Instute however fund publitns and mpaigns assertg the view that gay and lbian parentg was damagg and will e psychosocial or sexual damage to children, even sendg a paper to all UK foster re and adoptn panels stillg the fearmongerg view that children placed wh LGBTQ+ rers are more likely to bee gay themselv.