American Academy of Pediatrics Releases Report Supporting Marriage Equality and Adoption Rights

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organisation, today praised the release of a policy statement and technical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supporting marriage equality and adoption and foster care rights by same-sex couples titled, 'Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian,' 

According to the AAP, the report builds on a policy statement published in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2010, supporting second-parent adoption by partners of the same sex as a way to protect children’s right to maintain relationships with both parents, eligibility for health benefits and financial security.

“This new policy statement and report supporting marriage equality and adoption rights for LGBT prospective parents shows that discrimination harms children and families,” said Ellen Kahn, director of the HRC Family Project and a professional social worker.  “Child welfare experts agree that adoptive parents should be judged by their character and their ability to raise a child, not on their sexual orientation or gender identity and that marriage equality strengthens families.”

The nation’s leading child welfare organisations support adoption by gay and lesbian parents.  In addition to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ support of legislation that allows both partners in a same-sex couple to jointly adopt children, the American Psychological Association supports initiatives which allow same-sex couples to adopt and co-parent children and supports all the associated legal rights, benefits, and responsibilities which arise from such initiatives.

The HRC Foundation has been working to widen the pool of loving forever families for children.  The All Children—All Families (ACAF) initiative, launched in 2007, promotes policies and practices that welcome LGBT foster and adoptive parents.  With the goal of increasing the pool of loving forever families for children, the program seeks to enhance LGBT cultural competence among child welfare professionals and educate LGBT people about opportunities to become foster or adoptive parents to waiting children.  To date, ACAF has over 60 participating agencies across the country, and has awarded 33 seals of recognition. More information about the initiative can be found at www.hrc.org/acaf.

The policy statement is available at pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2013-0376 and the technical report at pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2013-0377

Photo By Kurt Löwenstein Educational Center International Team from Germany (ws’08 (5)) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons