Gay adoptn breaks new ground - The Globe and Mail

Contents:

• FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO LEGALLY ADOPT CANADA HOP NEW MEMOIR WILL BOOST ADOPTNS
• NEVER GIVE UP: ADOPTN ADVICE OM A CANADIAN GAY MAN WHO FOUGHT THE GOVERNMENT…AND WON
• 10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• GAY ADOPTN BREAKS NEW GROUND

FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN TO LEGALLY ADOPT CANADA HOP NEW MEMOIR WILL BOOST ADOPTNS

Twenty years after he beme the first openly gay man to legally adopt a child Canada, David McKstry hop that a new book about his long fight to bee a father will spire others to nsir adoptn. The prevailg view was that gay men, and same-sex upl more generally, were unf to be parents.

"'We don't give to homosexuals'After years of difficulti, 1997, he received a fateful phone ll om Canada's then-immigratn mister, Lucienne Robillard.

NEVER GIVE UP: ADOPTN ADVICE OM A CANADIAN GAY MAN WHO FOUGHT THE GOVERNMENT…AND WON

Wh two weeks, each replied wh a terse msage: "We don't give to homosexuals, " McKstry remembered. Contributg wrer Beth Hallstrom went north of the boarr to get Canadian perspectiv on LGBT parents and their child welfare system this stallment of the Huffgton Post Gay Voic / "Let Love Defe Fay®” 's reputatn as a iendly, open and acceptg land sh brightly the untry's adoptn polici, which have helped many LGBTQ upl and dividuals -- cludg Ann Loree and Fareen Samji of Burlgton, Ontar -- create the fai they longed and Fareen, both 41 years old, are parents to dghter Ganha, who is 15, and 12-year old son Kam. There is jt one muny and beg gay jt isn't an issue wh that muny.

Let Love Defe Fay SeriSgle people, same-sex upl, gays, lbians and transgenr people are all wele to pursue adoptn and there are no upper age limatns on prospective parents, acrdg to the Ottawa-Based uncil. Livg through the 1980’s as a young man, wasn’t a time history predisposed to gay people adoptg children.

There weren’t many gay men lg up to date a guy who wanted to adopt children, so I figured I would bee a sgle dad. Many years later, now acceptg that I was a gay man, I met my first hband Nick and together we navigated the uncharted waters of surrogacy and adoptn both Canada and the Uned Stat. I had bee a thorn the si of the Canadian Government my efforts to change laws that would allow gay men to adopt children.

10 GAY ADOPTN FACTS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

We entered the Canadian history books as the first gay uple Canada approved to -adopt our children and pave the way for other gay upl to w the digny and legal right to -adopt children 2001. As the first openly gay Canadian man approved to adopt ternatnally, David McKstry set a legal precent 1997. A few years later, wh his send hband, Michael, he did so aga when they beme the first gay Canadian uple to -adopt children.

PolicsCanada is now home to about one ln people who intify as members of the LGBTQ muny, wh people unr the age of 25 acuntg for a disproportnately large portn of the LGBTQ says s reportg on transgenr populatns will improveA rabow flag hangs Montreal's Gay Village.

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. But, exactly how mon is gay adoptn, and how many gay parents are there the U.

GAY ADOPTN BREAKS NEW GROUND

What are some other important gay adoptn facts that you need to know?

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. 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. 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. Homosexual adoptn studi show LGBT adoptive parents are more likely to adopt transracially.

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.

We liked the ia of havg a geic tie to our child, and surrogacy seemed to the clost way a gay uple like uld ‘give birth’ to a child. Wh ternatnal adoptn not a viable optn for gay upl, we had two optns ont of , public and private adoptn. Smagata sheepishly, clearly disappoted his sudn stat as the send-strg two men would be typil first-time parents anxly treadg across the uncharted ground of diapers, baby bottl and nap tim were they not, as a gay uple, about as far om typil as any two parents Canada uld be.

"There was a grievg procs that I went through, and I know many gay men go through, that parenthood wasn't gog to be a possibily, " Mr.