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ADOPTION
Rainbow Babies
Gay
Foster Parents
Facts
on Gay Adoption
Two Gay Dads Adopt Six Kids
Stories of Gay Dads and
Their Foster Families
How Do Queer Couples Have Babies?
Lifelong Adoptions: LGBTQ Adoptions
Info: LGBTQ Parents
of Straight Children
Find
Law: Legal Issues for Gay and Lesbian Adoption
Michael and Tyrone: Foster Care Adoption Story
How to Make Adoption a Reality
Foster Care Adoption Story: Crystal and Kelly
LGBTQ
Adoption: Redefining Family
Lesbian Moms Adopt Three Brothers
LGBTQ
Adoption Statistics
Of the 594,000 same-sex couple households
in the United States, 115,000 have children. Some people
say that children need both a mother and a father to
raise them, but there are many others who believe that
gender does not matter when parenting. Over the years,
the number of children living with LGBTQ parents has
risen tremendously. As the trend continues, that number
will only increase, as same sex adoption and parenting
becomes more and more widely accepted.

Researchers estimate the total number of
children nationwide currently living with at least one
gay parent ranges from 6 to 14 million. An estimated two
million LGBTQ people are interested in adopting.
Gay and lesbian parents are raising four
percent of all adopted children in the United States.
More than 16,000 same-sex couples are raising an
estimated 22,000 adopted children in the United States.
More than 16,000 adopted children are living with
lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest
number in the United States.
Same-sex parents in the United States are
four times more likely than different-sex parents to be
raising an adopted child. Among couples with children
under the age of 18 in the home, 13% of same-sex parents
have an adopted child, compared to just 3% of
different-sex parents. The median age of same-sex
adoptive parents is 42, as opposed to 44 for comparable
opposite-sex parents.

Same-sex couples in all states can
petition for joint adoption statewide. Couples may be
required to be in a legally recognized relationship,
such as a marriage, civil union, or domestic
partnership. States that explicitly allow same-sex
couples to petition for a second parent adoption include
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington DC, Idaho,
Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New
Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.
Advocate: What I've Learned From Being a Gay Dad
LGBTQ Nation: Foster Kid Dreams of Being Adopted by Two
Days
Germany Making it Easier for Lesbian Couples to
Co-Parent
Hero Dads Adopt Six Siblings
Adoption Finalized for Alabama Couple
Info: Home and Family
Stories of Gay Dads and
Their Foster Families
NOLO:
Gay and Lesbian Adoption and Parenting
Steve and Rob: Two Dads Adopt Six Siblings
LGBTQ
Adoption: Redefining Family
Same
Sex Couples Can Adopt Children in All 50 States
How Do Queer Couples Have Babies?
Info: Same Sex Marriage
ACLU:
Overview of LGBTQ Parenting, Adopting, and Foster Care
Michael and Tyrone: Foster Care Adoption Story
How to Make Adoption a Reality
What
They Aren't Telling You About Gay Adoption
Two Gay Dads Adopt Six Kids
The
Berretts: Questions for an LGBTQ Family
Info: LGBTQ Parents
of Straight Children
Family
Equality
LGBTQ Adoption Facts
For many, LGBTQ adoption is still a new
concept, and the image of a “perfect” family includes a
mother and a father of opposite sexes. We know this is a
just a stereotype. Today, more and more gay and lesbian
couples are becoming parents, whether through artificial
insemination, a surrogate or LGBTQ adoption.
Almost 40% of all agencies and 83% of
public agencies reported making at least one adoption
placement with a lesbian or gay man. However, one-third
of agencies would reject a gay or lesbian applicant,
either because of the religious beliefs guiding the
agency, a state law prohibiting placement with LGBTQ
parents, or a policy of placing children only with
married couples. Additionally, agency heads are more
likely to have negative views towards gays and lesbians
adopting when they associate such adoptions with greater
evaluation and support needs.

Here are some additional facts supporting
gay adoption:
There is no reliable evidence that
homosexual orientation impairs psychological
functioning. And, beliefs that lesbian and gay adults
are not fit parents have no empirical foundation.
Good parenting is not influenced by
sexual orientation. It is influenced most by a parent’s
ability to create a loving and nurturing home. This
ability has nothing to do with whether the parent is gay
or straight.
There is no evidence to support claims
that children of lesbian and gay parents are less
intelligent, suffer from more problems, are less
popular, or have lower self-esteem than children of
heterosexual parents.

Research suggests that sexual identities
(including gender identity, gender-role behavior, and
sexual orientation) develop in much the same ways among
children of gay and lesbian parents as they do among
children of heterosexual parents.
There is no conclusive evidence that
homosexuality is linked to one's environment. In other
words, growing up in a same-sex couple household will
not "make" a child gay.
Steve
& Trevor Plus Four Sons
Heidi
& Karla Plus Twelve
Ricardo & Jesse Plus Four Sons
Denis
& Hugo Plus One Infant
Mignon
& Elaine Plus Two
Victory for Indiana Lesbian Couples
Supreme Court hands
down victory for lesbian Moms.
Indiana
officials were seeking to undermine marriage equality,
but the justices refused to hear the case.
In December 2020, the Supreme Court has denied Indiana’s
petition to hear a case involving the rights for
same-sex spouses to appear on their children’s birth
certificates, leaving in place an appeals court decision
in favor of listing the wife of a woman who gives birth
on their child’s birth certificate.
A month earlier, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill
asked the Supreme Court to deny same-sex couples the
same right of presumed parenthood that opposite-sex
couples enjoy. When a child is born to a married,
opposite-sex couple, the mother’s husband is presumed to
be the father and is listed on the birth certificate,
even if there is no proof that he is the child’s
biological father, and even if the couple knows he is
not because they used a sperm donor.
In Box v. Henderson, the
US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sided with
eight married lesbian couples who had children with the
help of artificial insemination, saying that the wives
of the women who carried the children should be presumed
to be their children’s parents instead of forcing them
to adopt the children later.
This is because Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme
Court decision that legalized marriage equality in all
50 states, requires that same-sex marriages and
opposite-sex marriages be treated the same. And in its
2017 Pavan v. Smith decision, the Supreme Court ruled
that same-sex couples have the same right to be named on
their children’s birth certificates.
But the case gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to
overturn Pavan and start chipping away at Obergefell‘s
right to marriage equality by denying certain rights
that opposite-sex couples enjoy. The state of Indiana
argued that states have the right to maintain the
“biological distinction between males and females” and
presume that a mother’s husband is her child’s father.
Since the Supreme Court has moved significantly to the
right since 2017, Indiana’s attorney general might have
thought that the high court would take him up on the
offer to overturn the previous LGBTQ victories. But it
did not. LGBTQ advocates like Shannon Minter of
the National Center for Lesbian Rights are relieved that
the Court did not take up Box v. Henderson.
Two Twitter
Messages:
BREAKING: US Supreme
Court declines to hear Indiana case on listing both
mothers on birth certificate in same-sex marriages.
Appeals Court ruling ordering both moms to be listed on
birth certificate remains in place.
SIGH OF RELIEF: SCOTUS just declined to hear Box v.
Henderson, a case in which the Indiana Attorney General
was trying to strip queer people of equal parenting
rights. The 7th Circuit's decision striking down an
Indiana law keeping same-sex parents off birth
certificates stands.
[Source: Alex Bollinger, LGBTQ Nation, December 2020]
Supreme Court Hands Down
Victory to Indiana Lesbian Couple
Conservative SCOTUS
Announces Another Pro-LGBTQ Decision
Supreme Court Declines to
Roll Back Marriage Equality
Birth Certificate Case:
Victory for Indiana LGBTQ Families
Indiana Tries to Deny Parental Rights to Same Sex Couple
Cari & Kim Plus Khaya
Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand legally
married in 2008. Cari Searcy's partner, Kim McKeand, had
given birth to a baby boy, Khaya Searcy, in December
2005, with the aid of a donor. Searcy then sought to
become the adoptive parent of the child, who bears her
last name. Adoption would give Searcy rights to make
medical decisions for the child as well as securing the
sense of family in their home.
In July 2015, Baldwin County (Alabama)
Circuit Court Judge James Reid granted the adoption for
Cari Searcy in Mobile County Probate Court. His approval
of the measure ended a winding and politically fraught
legal battle for Searcy and her wife Kim McKeand,
Khaya's biological mother.

Their four-year-long quest to adopt the
child led to a federal judge overturning the state's
constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
"It was such a surreal feeling to hear
the judge say that it is in the best interest of this
boy to have two legal parents," Searcy said. "For me,
that's when I broke down. It's very emotional and a day
we've been waiting for a long, long time."
Searcy first filed paperwork in Mobile
County Probate Court in 2011 to legally adopt the boy,
whom she has raised since birth. After a brief hearing,
Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis rejected the
petition in April 2012, citing the state's ban on
same-sex marriage. The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals
later upheld that decision.
In February 2015, a federal judge ruled
that Searcy could not be denied her desire to adopt
Khaya, clearing the way for same-sex marriage in
Alabama.
But hours before the law legalizing
same-sex marriage was to begin, Supreme Court Chief
Justice Roy Moore ordered the state's probate judges to
withhold same-sex marriage licenses pending the US
Supreme Court decision on the matter.
Searcy filed a second lawsuit after Davis
indicated he would not give final approval of the
adoption until after US Supreme Court case resolved the
same-sex marriage issue. The US Supreme Court legalized
same-sex marriage nationwide in June 2015, striking down
any remaining barriers to Searcy's adoption.
At the courthouse, Khaya, 9, was dressed
for the occasion, wearing a gray suitcoat, a blue button
up shirt, dress pants, and a plaid clip-on tie.
Clutching a brown teddy bear, he said, "It's good that I
finally have two legal parents."
[Source: Casey Toner, Alabama Media
Group, July 2015]

Rainbow Babies
Two Gay Dads Adopt Six Kids
Lesbian Moms Adopt Three Brothers
How to Make Adoption a Reality
Steve and Rob: Two Dads Adopt Six Siblings
Gay
Foster Parents
Stories of Gay Dads and
Their Foster Families
LGBTQ
Adoption: Redefining Family
How Do Queer Couples Have Babies?
The
Berretts: Questions for an LGBTQ Family
Facts
on Gay Adoption
Foster Care Adoption Story: Crystal and Kelly
Lifelong Adoptions: LGBTQ Adoptions
Greg and Paul: Two Dads Foster Adopt
Lesbian Moms: How We Met
Info: LGBTQ Parents
of Straight Children
Find
Law: Legal Issues for Gay and Lesbian Adoption
Ron and Greg: Story of Two Gay Dads
Tess and Nikina: Story of Two Lesbian Moms
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