Study of the Week: Banning Gay Adoption Hurts Children

Published November 02, 2008 @ 04:40PM PT

gay adoption How timely is this piece of news, given the fact that Arkansas voters will rule on Tuesday whether gay couples in the state can still have the right to adopt and provide foster care for children.

A study out by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute highlights a number of critical points when it comes to the subject of LGBT adoption. The findings? Here we go:

LGBT foster parents are critical nationwide in getting children into the foster care system before they age out. By not allowing LGBT people to serve as foster parents, a large demographic of foster parents are taken off the table, and children are forced to wait for foster homes;
Children who age out of the foster care system are more likely to face poverty, homelessness, incarceration and early parenthood;
Gay and lesbian couples adopt at a higher frequency than heterosexual couples. Same-sex couples are 1.7 percent more likely to adopt than heterosexual couples.

Together, those stats speak volumes to me about the implications of banning LGBT adoption. Banning it certainly punishes gay and lesbian couples. But the real story here is how it hurts children. Arkansas, vote accordingly.

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Comments (2)

This should be enough to turn heads about not only our rights but the childrens rights as well

Posted by Heath Wirtala on 11/02/2008 @ 08:33PM PT
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In my humble opinion, children need loving adults. If the possibility exists of foster children & orphans going to parents who love them, who cares what sex the adults are?

Everyone has the capacity for love. To prevent certain people from sharing their love with children is horrible.

Adoption rights for everyone - especially the children.

Posted by Lisa Smolen on 11/03/2008 @ 08:22AM PT
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Author

Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.