Information for Gay and Lesbian Adoptive Parents
Open Adoption & Family Services (OA&FS) warmly welcomes gay and lesbian adoptive parents into its adoption program. Our programs and services are equally accessible to all clients -- whether gay, lesbian, straight or single.
Our pool of prospective adoptive parents includes gay and lesbian adoptive parents from all over the United States who have come to OA&FS to form healthy families through open adoption. We have successfully placed children with gay and lesbian parents in Maryland, Washington D.C., Georgia, California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington.
We do not use a waiting list system; our placements are determined by birthmother choice. Over the past three years, 30% of our total placements have been with gay or lesbian adoptive families. Between 2006 and 2009, we placed between 13 and 16 children per year with gay or lesbian adoptive families. Unless a birthparent specifically requests otherwise, each “Dear Birthparent” packet we send includes gay and lesbian family profiles. We share information with birthparents about gay and lesbian parenting whenever possible. We hope for the number of birthmothers choosing gay and lesbian couples to steadily increase as society in general becomes more educated about gay and lesbian parenting.
The average wait for gay and lesbian couples to adopt in the last fiscal year was 13 months, compared to an all-client average of 10 months. The previous year, gay and lesbian couples waited an average 18.5 months, compared to an all-client average of 11.5 months. In fiscal year 2007-2008, all-clients, including gay and lesbian couples, waited an average of 13 months.
Please enjoy the resources for prospective gay and lesbian adoptive parents on our Web site. They were created in direct response to feedback from our gay and lesbian clients, including birthparents, adoptees and adoptive parents.
If you’d like to hear a firsthand experience about what it’s like to adopt a child as a same sex family, check out: The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant. In this honest and hilarious book, Seattle author and adoptive father Dan Savage chronicles his experience adopting through our agency.