Facts About Gay and Lesbian Adoptions

Since Open Adoption & Family Services (OA&FS) was founded in 1985, we've welcomed gay and lesbian prospective adoptive parents to our agency. OA&FS treats gay and lesbian clients no differently from straight or single adoptive parents. We consider them equally fit and qualified to become excellent parents.

  • Each year, gay and lesbian couples make up between 30-40% of OA&FS’ pool of waiting families on average. In April 2010, 35% of our pool of waiting families are same-sex couples.

  • We placed between 13 to 16 children per year (about 30% of completed placements) with gay or lesbian families over the past three years.

  • In the U.S. about 60% of adoption agencies accept applications from gay and lesbian couples and about 40% of agencies have placed children with parents they know to be gay or lesbian, according to a 2003 survey by The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. While it is still common practice for public and private adoption agencies to restrict gay and lesbian participation to specific and sometimes less popular adoption programs, such as only special-needs adoption programs, OA&FS does not discriminate in this manner.

Facts About Children Raised by Gay and Lesbian Parents

  • In 1990, an estimated 6 to 14 million children in the United States had at least one gay or lesbian parent (Baker v. State, 1999).

  • Numerous well-respected authorities agree that children of same-sex parents are as healthy, happy and well-adjusted as peers with heterosexual parents:

    • The American Psychological Association, representing more than 155,000 psychologists, states that children of gay and lesbian parents are at no disadvantage psychologically or socially compared to children of heterosexual parents.
    • The American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s leading pediatric authority with 57,000 members, says that children who grow up with gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social and sexual functioning as children with straight parents.
    • The National Association of Social Workers, with nearly 150,000 members, agrees that research on gay and lesbian parenting shows a total absence of pathological findings in their children.
    • “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.” -- Charles J. Patterson, researcher at the University of Virginia, 2004

  • Children of gay and lesbian parents experience no significant differences in quality of peer relationships, nor do they experience more struggles with self-esteem.

    • Susan Golombok et al., Children in Lesbian and Single-Parent Households: Psychosexual and Psychiatric Appraisal, 1983.
    • Fiona Tasker and Susan Golombok, Growing up in a Lesbian Family, 1997.
    • Sharon L. Huggins, A Comparative Study of Self Esteem of Adolescent Children of Divorced Lesbian Mothers and Divorced Heterosexual Mothers, 1989.
    • Mary E. Hotvedt and Jane B. Mandel, Children of Lesbian Mothers, 1982.

Facts About Gay Parenting

  • Research shows that gays and lesbians are just as fit to parent as heterosexuals, possessing the same abilities to nurture and provide stable homes:

    • David K. Flaks et al., Lesbians Choosing Motherhood: A Comparative Study of Lesbian and Homosexual Parents and Their Children, 1995.
    • Charlotte J. Patterson and Raymond W. Chan, Gay Fathers and Their Children, 1996.
    • Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz, Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?, 2001.

  • Gay and lesbian couples enjoy the same degree of relationship health and satisfaction, and stay together long-term at the same rates, as opposite-sex couples:

    • Charlotte J. Patterson, Family Relationships of Lesbians and Gay Men, 2000.
    • Philip Blumstein and Pepper Schwartz, American Couples, 1983.
    • L.A. Peplau and Susan D. Cochran, A Relationship Perspective on Homosexuality, 1990.
    • Lawrence A. Kurdek, Lesbian and Gay Couples, in “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Identities Over the Lifespan: Psychological Perspectives,” 1995; Relationship Stability and Relationship Satisfaction in Cohabitating Gay and Lesbian Couples: A Prospective Longitudinal Test of the Contextual and Interdependence Models, 1992; and Relationship Quality of Partners in Heterosexual Married, Heterosexual Cohabitating, and Gay and Lesbian Relationships, 1986.

Please note: Studies cited above represent only a sampling of gay and lesbian parenting research.