And the study says...

Hi. Its Thurs and Spouse & I are on our way to NYC! But I prepared this post ahead of time for you. I hope you enjoy it.

I thought this article was interesting! Let's hope this study finds its way to receptive legislative ears.

Study: Gays important resource in reducing children in state care

A study released Thursday by a non-partisan adoption group says that states need to tap into the gay and lesbian community to reduce the number of children up for adoption.

There are about 129,000 children waiting to be adopted, the New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute said in the report.

Many of these children are older and have special physical, mental health, and developmental challenges.

“[They] face gloomy prospects of succeeding in life without adoptive parents who can provide them with affection, nurture, support, and guidance,” the report said, noting that research shows that the 25,000 youths who “age out” of foster care each year are at high risk for a host of negative outcomes, including poverty, homelessness, incarceration and early parenthood.

The Institute study said that the pool of prospective adoptive parents must be increased and recommends that state laws and agency practices must be revised to become more welcoming of gay and lesbian applicants.

A number of states have banned same-sex marriage and several are moving to bar gay couples from adopting. Florida denies the right to adopt to all gays, whether in a relationship or not.

“State laws should serve children’s best interests by permitting joint and second-parent adoptions, and all states should give “full faith and credit” to adoptions legally completed in other states, without regard to the marital status or sexual orientation of the adoptive parents,” the report said.

It also recommends that qualifications, not sexual orientation, should be the guiding principle in finding homes for adoptive children.

“Agencies should assess their policies and practices to ensure that they are welcoming - in recruitment, training and post-placement services - for all qualified family resources who want to provide homes for children in foster care, including gay/lesbian individuals and couples,” the report said.

It cited a number of studies that found gay and lesbian adults are “very willing to adopt children with special needs and, as a demographic group, may be more willing to do so than heterosexual adults.”

The study further notes that data show that gay and lesbian adults provide a significant number of families for children who need foster or adoptive homes.

“Researchers estimate over 14,000 children live in lesbian- or gay-led foster families today, while at least 4 percent of all adopted children in the U.S. - about 65,000 - are being raised by gay and lesbian parents.” the institute said, citing earlier studies by the Urban Institute and the Williams Institute.

The institute said that although there is currently little research on the long-term outcomes for children adopted by gays or lesbians studies on children dating back 25 years conclude that children raised by gay and lesbian non-adoptive parents fare as well as those reared by heterosexual parents.

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