http://www.mombian.com/2009/07/16/lgbt-parenting-roundup-33/ Sustenance for Lesbian Moms Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:39:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.mombian.com/2009/07/16/lgbt-parenting-roundup-33/comment-page-1/#comment-92631 Dana Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:24:42 +0000 http://www.mombian.com/?p=5327#comment-92631 Ooh, good catch, Nancy. Thanks! Ooh, good catch, Nancy. Thanks!

]]> http://www.mombian.com/2009/07/16/lgbt-parenting-roundup-33/comment-page-1/#comment-92627 Nancy Polikoff Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:49:31 +0000 http://www.mombian.com/?p=5327#comment-92627 Just a quick note about adoption in Australia. It's true that some states do not allow both partners to adopt, but Australian federal law makes both partners parents if one of them adopts and the other consents to the adoption. It was the smart way to get around the law in recalcitrant states. Here's a helpful website: http://glrl.org.au/index.php/Rights/Parenting/Federal-Same-Sex-Parenting-Reforms Just a quick note about adoption in Australia. It’s true that some states do not allow both partners to adopt, but Australian federal law makes both partners parents if one of them adopts and the other consents to the adoption. It was the smart way to get around the law in recalcitrant states. Here’s a helpful website: http://glrl.org.au/index.php/Rights/Parenting/Federal-Same-Sex-Parenting-Reforms

]]> http://www.mombian.com/2009/07/16/lgbt-parenting-roundup-33/comment-page-1/#comment-92625 Byron Edgington for Caffection, LLC Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:03:16 +0000 http://www.mombian.com/?p=5327#comment-92625 From the blog 7/16/09: Q: Won't civil marriage equality contribute to a decrease in family stability? A: This is an important question for a number of reasons. It deserves a thoughtful, clear-eyed response. So here it is. At its core, civil marriage equality is the signal family values issue of our time. Our gay & lesbian brothers and sisters don't for one minute take for granted that they'll be given the blessing and responsibility of raising children in a safe, stable home, thereby creating a family. Indeed, given the obvious inability to biologically procreate between each other, LGBT people must go outside their own sphere, at considerable risk and expense, to secure a child. Or, they must--where the law allows them to--procure an adopted child to raise, again at considerable tedium and expense. The bottom line is, that LGBT people lack the luxury of taking children for granted as a natural, expected occurence in their lives. They must go to extraordinary lengths to be parents. That simple fact, that many of them do--gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States*--indicates their typically human desire to create families, and raise children. This is not an urban, or 'coastal' phenomenon: 96 percent of all U.S. counties have at least one same-sex couple with children under 18 in the household, Census 2000 reveals. I'm not implying that heterosexual couples value children and family any less; I am saying, however, that those who go to such extremes to adopt or have a child clearly have a strong desire to parent, and will likely be good at it. Particularly so, given their own history of social disdain, they can offer their child the benefit of empathy in the inevitable childhood peer acceptance battles. From the blog 7/16/09: Q: Won’t civil marriage equality contribute to a decrease in family stability?
A: This is an important question for a number of reasons. It deserves a thoughtful, clear-eyed response. So here it is. At its core, civil marriage equality is the signal family values issue of our time. Our gay & lesbian brothers and sisters don’t for one minute take for granted that they’ll be given the blessing and responsibility of raising children in a safe, stable home, thereby creating a family. Indeed, given the obvious inability to biologically procreate between each other, LGBT people must go outside their own sphere, at considerable risk and expense, to secure a child. Or, they must–where the law allows them to–procure an adopted child to raise, again at considerable tedium and expense. The bottom line is, that LGBT people lack the luxury of taking children for granted as a natural, expected occurence in their lives. They must go to extraordinary lengths to be parents. That simple fact, that many of them do–gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States*–indicates their typically human desire to create families, and raise children. This is not an urban, or ‘coastal’ phenomenon: 96 percent of all U.S. counties have at least one same-sex couple with children under 18 in the household, Census 2000 reveals. I’m not implying that heterosexual couples value children and family any less; I am saying, however, that those who go to such extremes to adopt or have a child clearly have a strong desire to parent, and will likely be good at it. Particularly so, given their own history of social disdain, they can offer their child the benefit of empathy in the inevitable childhood peer acceptance battles.

]]>