The Issues:
Parenting
Statements on Gay and Lesbian Parenting
All of the major professional associations dedicated to children's health and welfare agree that lesbian and gay parents are as capable and successful at raising well-adjusted children as heterosexual parents.
“Children who grow up with one or two gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual.”
American Academy of Pediatrics, Technical Report: Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents, Pediatrics (2002)
“Not a single study has found children of gay or lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents. Indeed, the evidence to date suggests that home environments provided by gay and lesbian parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth.”
American Psychological Association, Lesbian and Gay Parenting (1995)
“Numerous studies over the last three decades consistently demonstrate that children raised by gay or lesbian parents exhibit the same level of emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as children raised by heterosexual parents.”
American Psychiatric Association, Adoption and Co-Parenting of Children by Same-Sex Couples: Position Statement (November 2002)
“Gay and lesbian individuals and couples are capable of meeting the best interest of the child and should be afforded the same rights and should accept the same responsibilities as heterosexual parents.”
American Psychoanalytic Association, Position Statement on Gay and Lesbian Parenting (May 16, 2002)
“Outcome studies of children raised by parents with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, when compared to heterosexual parents, show no greater degree of instability in the parental relationship or developmental dysfunction in children.”
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Policy Statement: Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Parents (June 1999)
“[The American Medical Association will] support legislative and other efforts to allow the adoption of a child by the same-sex partner, or opposite-sex non-married partner, who functions as a second parent or co-parent to that child.”
American Medical Association House of Delegates, Resolution 204 (A-04) (April 29, 2004)
“All prospective foster and adoptive parents, regardless of sexual orientation, should be given fair and equal consideration.”
North American Council on Adoptable Children, NACAC Position Statement: Gay and Lesbian Adoption and Foster Care (April 9, 2005)
“The most striking feature of the research on lesbian mothers, gay fathers, and their children is an absence of pathological findings. The second most striking feature is how similar the groups of gay and lesbian parents and their children are to heterosexual parents and their children that were included in the studies.”
National Association of Social Workers, Policy Statement: Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues, Social Work Speaks (1997)
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