"[6] Some argue that these statistics are due, in some part, to discriminatory practices that make it more difficult to adopt for LGBTQ families and deem minority children less “ideal” adoptees.
On April 6, 1999, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published Overview of Lesbian and Gay Parenting, Adoption, and Foster Care.
Key findings included:[7] Some researchers have written that children of gay and lesbian families are often subjected to teasing and harassment in their peer groups.
[12] Similar to intrauterine insemination using a sperm donor, the introduction of in vitro fertilization enabled lesbian couples to raise children of their own who had not been born from heterosexual relationships.
[12] The development of in vitro fertilization created controversy about co-parent adoption and, in cases where lesbian couples separated, child custody.
The practice also generated controversy about the presumption of parenthood: when a woman in a heterosexual marriage gives birth, her husband is legally presumed to be the child's father, but courts have only recently extended this privilege to lesbian couples.
[21] In 2010, the Third District Court of Appeals of the State of Florida concluded that "based on the robust nature of the evidence available in the field [...] the issue is so far beyond dispute that it would be irrational to hold otherwise; the best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption".
Results indicated that gay and lesbian couples tended to emphasize openness and a desire to pursue adoption without hiding their sexual orientation.
[25] A 2007 poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation found that 57% of respondents believed that same-sex couples should have the right to adopt, while 40% felt that they should not.
[26] More recently, a Gallup poll from May 2014 found that 63% of respondents believed same-sex couples should have the legal right to adopt a child.
From 2009 to 2012, a majority (from 52% to 61%) approved legalizing same-gender adoption,[28] with greater support expressed among young people than among those over 65 years of age.
[28] In June 2018, a YouGov poll found that over half of Americans (55%) believed that heterosexual and homosexual couples would be equally good parents.
[29] Research conducted by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry suggests that rising support of adoption by same-sex couples does not indicate changing normative stereotypes about homosexuality.
In 2004, Jeb Bush, the then-Governor of Florida, was quoted saying: "[I]t is in the best interest of adoptive children, many of whom come from troubled and unstable backgrounds, to be placed in a home anchored both by a father and a mother.
[40] The act would have stipulated that any organization that deals with foster and adoptive care of children and has some form of funding from the federal government could not discriminate against "prospective adoptive or foster parents solely on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identification, or marital status or on the basis of the sexual orientation or gender identity of the child involved.
"[41] As the bill only applied to centers that were federally funded, however, private institutions would still have been able to refuse same-sex couples from adopting.
[43] As of 2021, each state is able to make its own laws about LGBTQ discrimination in foster care, second-parent adoption, and parental presumption in same-sex relationships.
[44] On October 12, 2012, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals unanimously turned down the request of a woman to adopt her same-sex spouse's child.
[47] On November 4, 2008, Arkansas voters approved Act 1, a measure to ban anyone "cohabitating outside of a valid marriage" from being foster parents or adopting children.
On December 10, 2015, the Supreme Court of Arkansas stayed the statewide applicability, but allowed the three plaintiff couples to receive their amended certificates.
The Court held by a 6-3 vote that Arkansas' law only allowing for opposite-sex couples to be named on their children's birth certificates was an unconstitutional breach of their ruling in Obergefell v.
[citation needed] In Florida, a 1977 law prohibited adoption by homosexuals following the anti-gay Save Our Children campaign led by Anita Bryant.
In January 2017, Florida reached a settlement with the plaintiffs, agreeing to issue correct birth certificates to all married same-sex couples on an equal basis.
[59] On June 30, 2016, a federal judge ruled in Henderson v. Box that Indiana must allow same-sex couples to list both their names on their children's birth certificates.
The ruling came as a result of a federal lawsuit filed by eight same-sex couples who were unable to list the non-gestational parent's name on the child's birth certificate.
However, when a same-sex couple had a child, the state denied that presumption and forced the second partner to undergo an adoption, a "long, arduous and expensive" process.
[citation needed] 33% of Mississippi's households headed by same-sex couples include a child, the highest such percentage in the nation.
[74] The plaintiffs in that case were represented by Roberta Kaplan, who successfully argued United States v. Windsor before the U.S. Supreme Court.
[77] Three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the state on August 27, 2013, seeking the right to serve as foster and adoptive parents.
The lawsuit claimed that the state's policy against allowing two unrelated adults to adopt has been consistently enforced only against same-sex couples.