should rest [is] on the best interest of the child. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals historically have faced more rigorous scrutiny than heterosexuals regarding their rights to be or become parents. There is no evidence to suggest or support that parents with a gay, lesbian, or bisexual orientation are per se different from or deficient in parenting skills, child-centered concerns and parent-child attachments, when compared with parents with a heterosexual orientation. It has long been established that a homosexual orientation is not related to psychopathology, and there is no basis on which to assume that a parental homosexual orientation will increase likelihood of or induce a homosexual orientation in the child. Outcome studies of children raised by parents with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, when compared with heterosexual parents, show no greater degree of instability in the parental relationship or developmental dysfunction in children. The AACAP opposes any discrimination based on sexual orientation against individuals in regard to their rights as custodial or adoptive parents.”60
In June 2005, the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates overwhelmingly endorsed a policy that calls on the AMA to “support legislation and other efforts to allow adoption of a child by the same-sex partner or an opposite-sex non-married partner who functions as a second parent or co-parent to that child.”
On the matter of same-gender marriage, in May 2005 the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) approved a statement in support of legalizing same-gender marriage. Approval by the organization's board of directors in July 2005 made psychiatry the first medical specialty to publicly support same-gender civil marriage. Specifically, the APA policy states, “In the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health, the American Psychiatric Association supports the legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage with all rights, benefits, and responsibilities conferred by civil marriage, and opposes restrictions to those same rights, benefits, and responsibilities.”61
- Accepted May 4, 2006.
- Address correspondence to James G. Pawelski, MS, 141 Northwest Point Blvd, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007. E-mail:
The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
↵* It is important to note that Census 2000 counted only same-gender unmarried partners and should not be interpreted as a count of either the entire gay, lesbian, and bisexual population or the whole same-gender partnered population of the United States because the Census survey did not include questions about sexual orientation, did not count single gay and lesbian people, and did not count gay and lesbian couples who do not cohabitate.
↵† Although adoption is commonly thought to be the only way that gays and lesbians become parents, there are many paths to parenthood. Some have biological children from past heterosexual marital and nonmarital relationships, and some pursue surrogacy arrangements or undergo in vitro fertilization or alternative insemination with donor sperm. Where allowed by law, some gay and lesbian people become foster parents, whereas others choose to adopt children through domestic and international, public and private arrangements.
↵‡ Eight states and the District of Columbia have approved second-parent adoption for lesbian and gay parents either by statute or state appellate court rulings, which means that it is granted in all counties statewide. These states include California (as a result of the state's 2001 domestic partner law), Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Some lesbian and gay parents also have been granted second-parent adoptions in 18 other states. In some of these states, adoptions have been granted at the trial-court level, which means that, to date, they have been approved in certain counties only. In other states, there is anecdotal information about these adoptions being granted, although there is a lack of 