For many want-to-be parents, adoption is the only option. This is especially true for gay and lesbian parents. Whether the adoptee is a partner’s biological child from a previous, heterosexual relationship, or unrelated to either parent, gay and lesbian parents encounter many more obstacles than heterosexual couples when it comes to adopting a child. Most states do allow single gay and lesbian individuals to adopt a child, but many do not allow joint adoption, or second parent adoption by gay and lesbian couples.
While only seven states exclusively prohibit adoption by gay and lesbian couples (Utah, Ohio, North Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Florida, and Arkansas), only ten states, and DC, allow these couples to jointly adopt: Vermont, Oregon,
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Gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children under the same circumstances and limitations as heterosexual couples. As previously stated, allowing these couples to adopt children would provide many children with permanent homes. There is no reason to prohibit gay and lesbian individuals from raising children. The argument that having gay or lesbian parents may influence the gender identity or sexual orientation of the child is absurd. If heterosexual couples don’t always produce heterosexual, cisgender children, then there is no reason to believe that the gender identity or sexual orientation of the parents has any influence of that of the …show more content…
Golombok et al. (2014) found that gay and lesbian parents that lower levels of depression and parental anxiety than did the heterosexual parents. Gay and lesbian families also showed higher levels of expressed warmth. These parents were also found to interact with their children more than were heterosexual parents. Averett et al. (2009) also found that gay and lesbian couples tended to have obtained higher level degrees than did the heterosexual couples. This means that gay and lesbian families, on average are more likely to get a higher paying job, which allows for more