Gay Adoption Florida's 1977 Law

Gay Adoption

Florida's 1977 law banning gay adoption is getting national attention this month (Miller, 2010), as several gays are presently awaiting the court's ruling on whether they can adopt children from the Department of Families and Children. Regardless of Florida's decision, the latest study from New York University on parental gender once again confirms that children being adopted and raised by gay and lesbian parents has no bearing on the development of the children. Organizations across the United States are in need of adoptive parents, as thousands of children of all ages await permanent parents. Given research findings, there should be no reason why gay parents should not be able to adopt. When gays or lesbians apply for adoption, their ability to raise a child should be assessed by the same criteria as that for straight individuals.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, 2010), as of 2007, approximately 130,000 children in the child welfare system were on the list to be adopted. At the same time, a Library of Congress report noted "serious shortages" of qualified adoptive parents. The ACLU argues that many gay and lesbian families want to adopt children and frequently are willing to adopt the more-difficult-to-place children and youth, such as those that are older or disabled. However, the state governments and many adoption agencies and cultural norms continually create barriers for gay and lesbian couples to adopt. Many gay and lesbian adults and couples are interested in adopting children. However, discrimination has made it difficult for gay and lesbian adults and couples to complete the adoption process (Brodzinsky, 2003). Excluding gays and lesbians as potential adopters is not only discriminatory but it limits the number of potential adults available to adopt the thousands of children eligible for adoption.

Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, a national "pro-family" organization within the religious right, exemplifies the opponents to these adoptions. He has stated that "…ACLU-driven decision to treat homosexual and unmarried couples the same as married couples in adoption considerations is a disaster for children and families." His reasons are as follows: 1) the decision could deny the privilege of adoption to many heterosexual, married couples. This point is not accurate, since there are enough children available for adoption for both gays and heterosexuals; 2) children should be brought up by a mother and a father. Many children are raised by their single mother through divorce or widowhood;

3) thousands of children will forever be denied having mothers. In fact, with a lesbian couple, they can have two mothers; 4) a child has the best chance of developing a healthy sexual and emotional identity if raised by heterosexual spouses. There are no studies that show that this is the case; and 5) Common sense and an overwhelming body of social science data suggest that children raised outside of one-mother, one-father families are more likely to experience problems like drug abuse, depression, poor discipline and confused sexual identity. Once again, no studies support this belief.

Up until the 1990s, most states had very strict guidelines for adoptions. Since then, it has been easier for singles and gays to adopt. Although federal and state laws regulate adoption, states frequently vary from one community to another, from one organization to another, or, even from one judge to judge. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian organization, reports that 21 states and the District of Columbia are "open" to gay adoption. In some cases, gay foster parents were able to adopt based on the fact that they proved themselves suitable parents. Some of the states, such as Florida, however, are strongly against gay and lesbian adoption, and a law still is on the books. The state, however, allows homosexuals to be foster parents. Steven Lofton and Douglas Houghton challenged the Florida law when they were not able to adopt. Lofton had raised a foster child from birth for ten years, and Houghton was guardian of a 9-year-old boy for five years. The federal district judge said that the "Plaintiffs have not asserted they can demonstrate that homosexual families are equivalently stable, are able to provide proper gender identification, or are no more socially stigmatizing than married heterosexual families."

Such decisions are made by the courts based on personal values, not empirical data. In 1999, the American Psychologist published one of the first research studies on the topic of adoptive parenting. "Deconstructing the Essential Father" (Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999) concluded that successful parenting is not gender specific and children do not need fathers or mothers. Rather, any gender configuration of adults could parent equally well. The implication that fathers were not necessary was extremely controversial.

Since then, numerous studies, such as one conducted last year by Ryan of the University of Texas School of Social Work, and Averett and Nalavany of East Carolina University (2009), show that there is no difference in emotional problems experienced by the children who are adopted by heterosexual and gay or lesbian parents. In order to determine their findings, the study's authors used survey results from parents who adopted children through Florida's public child welfare system as well as data from gay and lesbian couples throughout the country. It included 155 gay and lesbian couples and 1,229 heterosexual couples who answered questions about parent and child characteristics, family composition and dynamics, the child's pre-adoptive history of parents matters, . including maltreatment, and current emotional and behavioral functioning.

Just recently (2010), New York University researchers Biblarz and Stacey undertook a thorough review of relevant research to have a better understanding of research to date on how the gender of parents influence the children's upbringing. They found that research to date, does not support the claim that children need both a mother and a father and most of the enduring parental skills are most likely not dependent on gender. Rather, research has not indicated that compared to all other possible family configurations, those that are headed by married, biological parents are best for children. Further, studies thus far have not identified any parenting abilities that are exclusive only to one gender. These authors further confirm the growing consensus by noteworthy researchers concerning regarding fathering and child development in fact, based only on studies to date, it could be argued that two women are better parents on average than a woman pairing with a man, or at least than a woman and man with a traditional division of family labor.