Adoption Rights of Lesbian and Gays

1. Adoption Rightsof Lesbian and Gays Grace M. White University of Houston WOST 2350

2. Current Info.-Adoption in Texas • “Texas has no official ban on adoption or foster parenting by lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals. However, for the past four legislative sessions, attempts have been made to institute a ban. LGBT couples cannot adopt as Texas only recognizes the married union of one man and one woman” (Equality Texas, 2006).

3. Current Info.-Cont. • “Though state adoption law currently discourages discrimination based on sexual orientation, many judges, who make the final decision, blatantly discriminate based on sexual orientation, openly showing hostility toward lesbian and gay parents. However, some judges have granted adoptions to lesbian and gay individuals and to the second parent of a same-sex couple. Second-parent adoption also has been permitted in some Texas counties” (Equality Texas, 2006).

4. Research on Lesbian & Gay Parenting According to research by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption institute: • About 2 in 5 (39%) of all agencies had placed at least one child with a homosexual adoptive parent in 1999-2000. • As with the acceptance of applications, adoptive placements of children with lesbians and gays varied as a function of program type and religious affiliation. The majority of special needs (61.5%) and international agencies (51.5%) made placements with homosexual clients. In contrast, fewer than half of the agencies with mixed adoption programs (45.7%) and only a quarter of agencies focusing on domestic infant adoptions (25.5%) made such placements.

5. Research Cont. • Percentage of Agencies Making Outreach Efforts to Lesbians and Gay Men as a Function of Adoption Program Focus • Infant/Toddler- 14.7% Yes, 85.3% No. • Special Needs- 32.1% Yes, 67.9% No. • International- 19.7% Yes, 80.3% No. • Mixed- 11.4% Yes, 88.6% No.

6. Myths about Lesbian & Gay Parenting • Lesbians and gay men are unfit to be parents. • Lesbians and gay men are emotionally disturbed and are more likely than heterosexuals to sexually abuse children. • Good parenting is influenced by sexual orientation. • Homosexuals do not possess adequate knowledge, skills, or personality characteristics to raise children, and that their lifestyle is inconsistent with forming a stable family environment. • Children raised in lesbian- and gay-headed households are more likely to experience serious psychological problems and to become homosexual themselves.

7. Myths Cont. • Children of lesbian and gay parents are less intelligent, suffer from more problems, are less popular, or have lower self-esteem than children of heterosexual parents. • Home environments with lesbian and gay parents are less likely to successfully support a child's development as those with heterosexual parents.

8. Myth Busting • Investigation into research on this topic has shown that: • Homosexual parents are no more likely to be emotionally disturbed than their heterosexual counterparts. • Good parenting is not influenced by sexual orientation. Rather, it is influenced most profoundly by a parent's ability to create a loving and nurturing home -- an ability that does not depend on whether a parent is gay or straight. • No link has been found between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. • There is no evidence to suggest that the children of lesbian and gay parents are less intelligent, suffer from more problems, are less popular, or have lower self-esteem than children of heterosexual parents.

9. Myth Busting Cont. • Homosexual couples establish co-parenting relationships that are at least as effective as their heterosexual counterparts. In fact, lesbian couples tend to share childrearing and domestic responsibilities more equally than heterosexual wives and husbands, and lesbian parents of children who are not theirs biologically generally are more involved in their care and display greater parenting skills than do heterosexual fathers. • The children of lesbian and gay parents grow up as happy, healthy and well adjusted as the children of heterosexual parents.

10. Survey Overview • For the purpose of this project I conducted a survey to ask individuals whether their beliefs were in alignment with the reasoning of many social workers and lawmakers who follow typical heterosexist assumptions about gays and lesbians. Listed on the next few pages are each question and the overall results as to what the participants thought.

11. Survey Results • 1. What is your gender? 20 females and 8 males • 2. What is your sexual orientation? 16 heterosexuals, 11 homosexuals, and 1 other. • 3. What is your marital status? 5 married, 9 same-sex partnerships, 10 singles, and 4 divorced. • 4. Do you have any children? 10 yes and 18 no. • 5. What is your highest level of education?1 high school, 6 some college, 3 associate’s degree, 7 undergraduate degree, and 11 graduate or professional degree.

12. Survey Results • 6. What is your ethnic background? 2 African-American, 1 Hispanic, 1 Asian –American, and 24 Caucasians of various backgrounds including Swedish, German, Polish, and Russian. • 7. Do you believe homosexuality is wrong or a devious behavior? 4 yes, and 23 no. • 8. Do you think homosexuals should be allowed to adopt children? 27 yes, and 1 no. • 9. Do you believe homosexual couple can be good parents? 27 yes, and 1 no.

13. Survey Results • 10. Do you think that sexuality should be a factor for determining whether someone will be a good parent or not? 27 no, 0 yes. • 11. Do you think that children of homosexual parents will grow up to be homosexuals also? 28 no, 0 yes. • 12. Do you think that children raised by homosexual couples are negatively affected by the parents relationship? 6 yes, and 22 no. • 13. Do you think that homosexual applicants should have to justify their differences or prove they can parent just like heterosexual applicants to social workers? 4 yes, and 24 no.

14. Survey Results • 14. Do you think that during the assessment of parenting capabilities by homosexual individuals it needs to be established whether the applicant has the ability to constructively manage homophobia or heterocentrism in his or her own life? 14 yes, and 14 no. • 15. Should social workers expect lesbians and gays to "learn" about their specific situation(being homosexual) in a way that is not expected of heterosexual applicants? 2 yes, and 25 no.

15. Survey Results • 16. Do you think that same-sex parenting can help children who have experienced oppresive gender norms to conceive of other ways of relating to people?  23 yes, and 5 no. • 17. Do you think that same-sex parenting may be useful for children who have experienced abuse within a heterosexual family based on the prioritization of masculine and feminine gender roles? 21 yes, and 6 no.

16. Survey Conclusion My overall goal with this survey was to obtain the opinion of both homosexual and heterosexual individuals. I had hoped to come to the conclusion that more people were against adoption of children by gays and lesbians. My reasoning behind wanting to obtain results so blatantly heterosexist is because I wanted to know if all this work at the Texas Legislature to ban homosexuals from adoption is in an effort to represent the masses.

17. Discussion • As you have been able to see from this presentation, heterosexism is at work everyday in the lives of homosexuals trying to adopt. It also affects all the children in the foster care system that would have loving families if social workers and adoption agencies were trained to look past their heterosexual biases. • Adopting a child is believed to be a backdoor tactic to being able to be legally married and recognized in the United States. Is this a logical assumption?

18. Discussion Cont. • From the research you should have noticed that the majority of children that are placed with homosexual couples are special needs or international children. Does this not strike anyone as odd? Homosexuals are not believed to be good parents, but the children that need the most care are given to them. • Also, you should have noticed that of the agencies that grant adoptions to Lesbians and Gays, a small percentage actually make an effort to reach out to this particular community to encourage adoption. Furthermore, Special Needs agencies do more outreach to homosexuals than any other type of agency.

19. Conclusion • Although it is not illegal for homosexuals to adopt children in Texas, you may have a hard time find an agency that will allow couples to adopt. • Here is 1 helpful website if you want to join in the fight against Heterosexism: • Equality Texas is a group that has lots of resources for homosexual couples wanting to adopt a child. They also give you the opportunity to speak out about this issue on the website. www.EqualityTexas.org