An independent voice for ethical adoption
Ethica’s position on Legal Unions for Gay and Lesbian Parents
Ethica believes that children need permanency in loving homes. We support any
action that ethically provides that. We are troubled that while
children are often finding permanent homes in gay and lesbian
households, there is less permanency than we’d like to see due to the
lack of legal relationships for both parents and their children.
States that do not provide for the necessary legal provisions are not
doing all that can be done to create true permanency for children.
However this can be addressed through the availability of same sex
marriage, civil unions with full rights, and legal adoption by both
parents. To this end, Ethica encourages legislative action that
reflects best adoption practices and research supporting gay and
lesbian families. It is vital that legal connections are established
between their children and both parents.
In most states, in a typical two-parent gay or lesbian home, there
is only one legal parent. In most states, unmarried same-sex persons
cannot both be legal parents to the child. This creates single parent
families burdened by unnecessary vulnerabilities. For example in the
case of the death of the legal parent, the result can be that a child
can quickly lose both of their parents; one through death the other
because there is no legal relationship to tie them together.
In divorce situations, we clearly value the need to protect a
child’s relationship to both parents and preserve the parental
relationship so that no child must lose parents due to divorce. When
legal unions are not permitted, gay and lesbian families have no such
protections, and in the case of separation, the children lose their
non-legal parent.
In addition, there are many benefits, such as health insurance,
that are not available to children of gays and lesbians should they
come from the non-legal parent and therefore not available to the
children due to the lack of legal relationship. This causes financial
hardship for these families.
Ethica believes that children need to have strong, permanent,
financially stable relationships with their parents. The social
service organizations with the responsibility to find families for
children encounter barriers such as the lack of legal status of both
parents in gay and lesbian homes. With an estimated 500,000 children
in foster care in the United States, we cannot discount the need to
secure as many qualified and loving homes as possible for
institutionalized children.
As we approach the election season, we urge legislators, judges,
politicians, and voters to send a clear message that true permanency is
needed for our nations’ children, those adopted and those born to all
families, including gay and lesbian families.
LGBT Adoptions Conference
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