Home LGBT adoption

LGBT adoption

What Are the Advocacy Groups

What Are the Advocacy Groups

Advocacy groups and gay adoption support groups must know they have much work to do and many people to convince before they can claim any real sense of victory. The campaign of LGBT rights activists for equality in adoptive rights irrespective of sexual orientation or gender identification has been an arduous one, and predictably, it will last for many years to come. It is the efforts of said advocacy movements and adoption support group involvement that will make realization of their goals possible, for there is strength in numbers. 
Some notes on different types of adoption support groups and how they may contribute to more widespread recognition of the liberties of the LGBT community:
As the struggle of gay adoption advocates has involved denunciation of State statutes and court rulings that put restrictions on who may petition to be adoptive parents, as well as promotion of Federal legislation that will eliminate sexual orientation-based barriers to child adoption, it would help to have some sort of adoption support group with a knowledge of family law and an interest in social issues. Thankfully, for the sake of adoption reform proponents, legal adoption support groups champion their cause and may even represent them in a court of law.
A number of high-profile advocacy groups offer gays and lesbians (as well as concerned third parties) resources on understanding their rights and information on laws that affect the LGBT community. The ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal are all committed to reversing the status quo and debunking destructive myths on the nature of homosexuality.
Even when an advocacy group is not an adoption support group exclusively, as an organization that has a basic affinity for protecting LGBT rights, it can still lend its voice to the same-sex adoption debate. COLAGE, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), and PFLAG are effectively adoption support groups for their consideration of all circumstances that affect the lives of homosexuals and bisexuals around the world and represent large cross-sections of the gay and lesbian populace.
In addition, perhaps the most important adoption support group one could consult would be an informal organization of sympathetic individuals who may not be experienced lawyers or advocates, but nonetheless may have gone through similar struggles to adopt as a gay/lesbian American or just wish to lend an ear and a shoulder to cry on. 

Fast Guide to LGBT Adoption Laws

Fast Guide to LGBT Adoption Laws

Gay adoption law is practiced differently in the United States based on the State in which same-sex couples choose to adopt. Some states are for the adoption of children in all cases as a result of specific legislation or State court rulings, though this applies to less than a fifth of the 50 states. Other states that have ruled in favor of LGBT adoption, meanwhile, have only done so at the trial court level, and as such, gay adoption laws may only apply at the county level.
Conflict of laws is usually construed to apply to cases of international adoption, where a foreign country might refuse gay adoption altogether to the chagrin of American LGBT applicants. However, as gay adoption law is a matter to be adjudicated by the states, interstate adoption within the United States may prove difficult for same-sex couples.
Though they may plan to raise an adopted child in a pro-LGBT adoption State such as Illinois, if they adopted the child from Michigan, where joint custody for same-sex couples is not a legitimate practice, the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children might serve to deny lawful recognition of the adoption because it is not legally authorized in both states. 
To circumvent conflicts of gay adoption laws, sometimes same-sex adoptive parents will apply separately as individuals in different states. If a partner is not a parent per sé, he or she may consider applying as a second parent to be given full custody rights.
With the lack of consistency and clarity in American gay adoption laws, it is wise for gays and lesbians to enlist the services of an LGBT-friendly attorney.  

What Are The Political Debate

What Are The Political Debate

Where gay adoption families have probably gained the most traction is in the argument of gay and lesbian adoption versus foster care. Where gay adoption families have found the biggest difficulties in trying to gain acceptance are amid comparisons to families helmed by a father and mother.
Numerous allegations have been hurled at supporters of gay and lesbian adoption by its opponents concerning the fitness of same-sex couples to raise a child, suggesting that children do not do well without the influence of birth parents. In addition, some people’s views against gay and lesbian adoption are simply founded on inaccurate suppositions.
One widespread fear of critics of gay adoption is that homosexuals might “turn straight children gay,” where there is no scientific basis for such a concern. Furthermore, some Americans are concerned about letting adopted children live with gay men under the impression they (homosexual men) are more likely to be pedophiles, when evidence suggests it is heterosexual males that are as much as 100 times more likely to molest a child.
As silly as some challenges to gay and lesbian adoption may sound, a distinct minority of states clearly support joint adoptions by same-sex couples. Even in the 21st Century, negative attitudes toward LGBT adoptive rights can be unflinchingly rigid.

Make Sure You Know The Anti-LGBT Adoption Laws

Make Sure You Know The Anti-LGBT Adoption Laws

In this day and age, it is not as if all of America is anti-gay adoption. Opinion polls dating back to 2003 showed that only about half of adults and teenagers are against gay adoption. In this country, only five states are decidedly against gay adoption by same-sex couples.
They are: Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, and Utah. However, while other states are not officially anti-gay adoption, they are also not overtly pro-gay adoption either, whether this be by omission of details about LGBT adoptions or unclear statutory language. 
Of the five states mentioned above, a few have enacted legislation in this regard. There is only one State, however, that is against gay adoption in all forms: Florida. The Sunshine State, over time, has become a symbol of the LGBT community’s struggle for equality in adoptive rights. State laws expressly prohibit homosexuals from adopting children. 
Lofton v. Secretary of the Dept. of Children & Family Services, a case challenging the constitutionality of this decree, reached the Florida Circuit Court system. In the end, the presiding court ruled that barring gays from adopting was reasonable because same-sex couples had less of a chance of marrying, and thus, less of a chance of providing a stable home environment, and that heterosexual parents could more easily relate to heterosexual adoptees, especially during puberty, among other things.

Quick Overview of LGBT Adoption

Quick Overview of LGBT Adoption

Most challenges to popular notions of the perfect American nuclear family have a tendency to draw the ire of those who espouse more traditional, conservative values. In particular, attempts of the LGBT community to claim the same legal privileges as those of straight men and women provide fodder for debates over gay rights every day. Certainly, one of the biggest issues that LGBT rights activists face in the United States is legalizing same-sex marriage.
To date, only a handful of states have agreed to marriages outright, with some legislators only supporting civil unions for same-sex couples, and some states and people explicitly voting against gay marriage. Gay adoption, while perhaps not contested with the same intensity as LGBT marriage, also has its detractors. 
In truth, gay adoptions are a part of American history. In terms of what types of gay adoptions are available in the United States, on the whole, their various forms coincide with those of heterosexual applicants. Foster care adoption, independent adoption, international adoption, open adoptions, single-parent adoption are all available.         
On the international side of things, depending on the destination, gay adoption has seen either greater or lesser acceptance. Countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, and Sweden in Europe provide for legal acknowledgment of gay adoptions in all cases. Canada is also largely approving of LGBT adoptions (though there are variances with regard to provinces and territories). Conversely, in most Middle East nations, gay adoption (and, in fact, homosexuality in general) is illegal. 
With specific regard to public LGBT adoption in America, the overall rate is fairly low. Here and elsewhere, “LGBT adoption” and “gay adoption” may be used interchangeably. While this is not technically correct, it should be noted that separate policies for bisexual and transgender are seldom parsed out. 

Know The Possible Effects of Widespread Legalization

Know The Possible Effects of Widespread Legalization

Representatives of the COLAGE Movement (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) estimate that over 10 million American children have at least one lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parent. As noted elsewhere, though, gay and lesbian adoptions have many opponents.
More importantly, though, gay and lesbian adoption is not protected by any Federal mandate or Constitutional Amendment. If a State is opposed to gay and lesbian adoptions of children, there is little immediate recourse for couples to apply for joint custody other than uprooting themselves and moving to a more tolerant State.
Nonetheless, with growing acceptance of LGBT individuals in the United States, widespread legalization of gay and lesbian adoption in the near future is not unreasonable. Below are considerations on what that may mean for the country: 
Certainly, aside from the obvious gift of a child that gay and lesbian adoption affords same-sex couples, widespread gay and lesbian adoptions may lead to more universal comfort and understanding of homosexuality in the United States. As same-sex partners will have the chance to educate their adopted children from a young age, those children who grow up in a loving home might naturally be less likely to attach a stigma to designations under the LGBT umbrella. 
By the same token, though, rapid expansion of gay and lesbian adoption may create somewhat of a backlash in many communities. In general, religious conservatives, who tend to predominate in the South and the Midwest, are opposed to even civil unions for gays and, needless to say, would not want to see “their children” cared for by homosexuals. In fact, one could foresee instances of prejudice and violence becoming only more prevalent in the wake of such a decision. 
In light of the practical difficulties of such a large-scale plan, perhaps gay and lesbian adoptions are best decided on a case-by-case or State-by-State plan that allows for more resistant jurisdictions to come around on the anti-LGBT adoption debate.

A Quick Look Into Reform Efforts

A Quick Look Into Reform Efforts

LGBT adoption rights within individual states are theoretically ensured by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. It should be noted that while gay adoption reform is usually understood to refer to attempts to modify existing statutes on gay and lesbian adoption to be more permissive of the namesake populations, as with the same-sex marriage debate, the gay adoption debate has also yielded calls for reform that would make adoption more restrictive for gays and lesbians.
Some legislators and concerned citizens have campaigned for change on a Federal level that would bar same-sex couples from adopting children, though these have gone largely for naught.
Where reform of gay and lesbian adoption has seen the biggest progress, though, is at the State level and in the public sector. Addressing the portion of the gay adoption debate relating to “gay parents vs. no parents”, many foster care agencies now provide for LGBT couples to adopt when once they condemned such things.