The incredible financial burden of Florida’s homophobic ban on adoption

The State of Florida could save $3.4 million dollars in the first year after lifting its gay adoption ban, according to The Williams Institute, at the UCLA School of Law.

A new study, titled Cost of Florida’s Ban on Adoption by GLB Individuals and Same-Sex Couples examines the impact on Florida’s children and the cost to the State of Florida created by the current ban on adoption by gay individuals and same-sex couples. Researchers used data about the number of children adopted each year as a way to estimate the number of gay people and same-sex couples who would be likely to serve as adoptive parents if the ban were not in place.

Research findings indicate that prohibiting gay people from adopting means that 165 children must remain in foster care or must have alternative adoptive homes recruited for them. As a result, it’s estimated that the ban costs the State of Florida over $2.5 million in per year. This estimate is conservative since some likely additional costs are difficult to quantify.

The study also estimates that if the ban were lifted, both adoption and foster care by gay people and same-sex couples would increase to the average United States level, leading to 219 children being adopted, and saving the State of Florida $3.4 million dollars in the first year.