Gay Adoption
...the issue at the forefront of what could be the next culture clash. According to a 2000 census there were 601,209 same-sex couples living together in the United States; one third of the female same-sex couples and one-fifth of the male smae-sex couples reported having children under eighteen in the home(2). Many state legislatures (e.g. Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan) which are working to ban same-sex couple adoption believe they are following up on successful banning of homosexual marriage. The drive to ban gay adoption has been led most strongly by the christian right, who believe homosexuality is unnatural and ungodly(3,4). Groups that have released policy statements encouraging state legislatures to allow gay adoption include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), the American Academy of Family Psychiatry (AAIP), and the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC)(H). All of these policy statements were justified by past and recent scientific studies, studies the Christian right have rebuked as scientifically unsound. The Christian right believes people are getting caught up in what they call "scientific activism".
Present status of gay adoption in the U.S.
There are a few different forms of adoption which a homosexual individual can partake in, and a variety of different bans in different states working to deny adoption. There is single adoption, where a person adopts a child when unmarried, most states allow individual homosexuals to adopt children. There is joint adoption, where an unmarried couple petitions the court to adopt a child, many states are attempting to ban this. Lastly there is...
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