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THE TIMES
OF INDIA
Gay parenting on the
rise globally
From the Web,
November 28, 2007
MUMBAI: A family,
traditionally, has meant man, woman and child. Not any more, as children
raised by gay and lesbian couples are on the rise internationally.
As per one rough estimate, between one and six million children in the United
States are raised by same-sex couples.
Laws differ from country to country and even state to state. In the US,
Florida is the only state that bans anyone who is a "homosexual" from adopting a
child. Utah does that indirectly by restraining unmarried couples from
adopting. Washington DC and 11 states, including California, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Vermont explicitly state that
sexual orientation cannot prevent gays and lesbians from adopting.
According to activists, some of the first same-sex adoptions in the 1980s were
by lesbian couples when assisted artificial reproduction techniques helped women
conceive.
By the 1990s, even gay couples started adopting a child or taking on the
responsibility of a foster parent. The 2000 US Census reported that 34% of
female same-sex households and 22% of male same-sex families include a child
below the age of 18.
While the gay rights group Lambda Legal Defense Fund estimates 6 million to 10
million gay parents are caring for 6 million to 14 million children, a more
conservative report in March 2007 by the Urban Institute and the Williams
Institute at University of California at Los Angeles School of Law says that
65,000 adopted children are being raised by same-sex parents in the United
States.
Across Europe, in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden same-sex couples
have been given the right to adopt a child. Australia, Canada, South
Africa and Israel are some of the other countries to allow it.
While fundamentalists' groups have been opposed to allowing same-sex couples
from adopting and caring for children, research since 1984 has supported such
adoptions.
The medical fraternity in the US has also been forthcoming with its support for
lesbian and gay couples. The American Psychological Association in its
Resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children in July 2004, said,
"There is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to
parental sexual orientation... lesbian and gay parents are as likely as
heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their
children."
A study of 100 heterosexual couples and 100 lesbian couples published by the
University of Amsterdam in mid-2007 revealed that children raised by lesbian
couples do not differ in well-being or child adjustment compared with their
counterparts in heterosexual-parent families.
This found resonance in about 15 studies on more than 500 children adopted by
same-sex couples in the US found no differences in intelligence, type or
prevalence of psychiatric disorders, self-esteem, well-being, peer
relationships, couple relationships, or parental stress between heterosexual and
same sex couples.
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