Urban Institute

After Congress ordered states in 1997 to move faster to find more families willing to adopt, child-welfare organizations joined together to get legislatures to allow any qualified parent to adopt, irrespective of sexual orientation.

The San Francisco Department of Human Services has started a campaign to recruit more gays and lesbians to adopt foster kids, especially teens, who are among the hardest to place. The agency sees gays and lesbians as an underutilized pool of potential parents.

101: Number of San Francisco foster children adopted July 2006 through April 2007.

84: Percentage of San Francisco foster children adopted by relatives.

16: Percentage of San Francisco foster children adopted by nonrelatives.

88: Of San Francisco foster children adopted by nonrelatives, percentage whose adoptive parents identify as gay or lesbian.

500,000: Number of children living in foster care in the United States.

The numbers are changing as they relate to gay and lesbian parenting. Family Pride has published the results of an updated study by the Williams Institute and Urban Insitute.

New research shows we are a growing demographic.

A major research project in the United States has revealed that more than 35% of lesbians between ages 18 and 44 have given birth, and 16% of gay men have a child.

The Williams Institute and the Urban Institute recently released a major study on adoption and foster care by lesbian and gay parents. The study uses census data and other government surveys to explore the demographics and characteristics of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals who are adoptive or foster parents.

Discussion and debate about adoption and foster care by gay and lesbian parents occurs frequently among child welfare policymakers, social service agencies, and social workers. They all need better information about gay adoptive and foster parents and their children as they make individual and policy-level decisions about placement of children with gay parents. The following information on adoption and foster care is taken from the U.S.

Gay families pay on average higher taxes than their straight friends with few benefits. And same-sex couples must file separate income tax forms (although they may have married in Massachusetts or committed via civil unions in New jersey, Connecticut or Vermont).

Those who registered as domestic partners in states such as California must also file separate income tax forms. In other words, families with gay and lesbian parents pay higher federal income tax than their opposite-sex married counterparts.