Essay on Same-Sex Adoption and Adoption Agencies is published for informational purposes only. The free papers are not written by our writers, they are contributed by users, so we are not responsible for the content of this free sample paper. If you want to buy a quality Essay on Essay on Same-Sex Adoption and Adoption Agencies at affordable prices please use our essay writing services offered by EssayEmpire.

Regardless of one's position as to whether gay parents should be permitted to adopt, there are distinct differences in how each side is portrayed in the media and in various advocacy groups' Web sites. Agencies exist on both sides of the issue. The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has done extensive work in improving the knowledge of the public in this area. In 2003, the institute published a national survey titled "Adoption by Lesbians and Gays: A National Survey of Adoption Agency Policies, Practices, and Attitudes." Drawing on a number of surveys and studies, the report gives a plethora of statistics regarding the acceptance and placement of children into homosexual homes.

Among the findings are that: (1) lesbians and gays are adopting regularly, in notable and growing numbers, at both public and private agencies nationwide; (2) assuming that those responding are representative (and the results show that they are), 60 percent of U.S. adoption agencies accept applications from homosexuals; (3) about two in five of all agencies in the country have placed children with adoptive parents who they know to be gay or lesbian; (4) the most likely agencies to place children with homosexuals are public, secular private, Jewish- and Lutheran-affiliated agencies, and those focusing on special needs and international adoption. In addition to the specific findings, the study's results led to several major conclusions on the levels of policy and practice. These may be summarized as follows: (1) for lesbians and gay men, the opportunities for becoming adoptive mothers and fathers is significantly greater than is generally portrayed in the media or perceived by the public; (2) although a large and growing number of agencies work with or are willing to work with homosexual clients, they often are unsure about whether to or how to reach out to them; (3) because so many homosexuals are becoming adoptive parents, it is important for the sake of their children that agencies develop pre-placement and post-placement services designed to support these parents.

In addition to the various types of programs that the adoption agencies utilize, ranging from special needs to international adoptions or a mixture of both, there is also a definite difference in the overall acceptance of adoption applications from homosexuals on the basis of the agency's religious affiliation. While Jewish-affiliated agencies were almost universally willing to work with LGBT clients, as were the majority of public agencies, private nonreligious, and Lutheran-affiliated agencies, only samples of Methodist and Catholic agencies were willing to consider applications from homosexuals. Twenty percent of all agencies responding to the study acknowledged that they had rejected an application from homosexual applicants on at least one occasion.

Not all of the agencies surveyed through the Donaldson Institute survey responded to the questions presented to them. Of those who willingly did respond, an estimated two-thirds of the agencies had policies in effect on adoption by gays and lesbians. Of those, an estimated 33.6 percent reported a nondenominational policy, 20 percent responded that placement decisions were guided by the children's country of origin, and another 20 percent said that religious beliefs were at the core of rejecting the homosexual applications. More than one-third of the responding agencies reported in follow-up phone calls that they did not work with homosexual prospective adoptive parents. On the other hand, an estimated two in five, or 39 percent, of all agencies had placed at least one child with a homosexual adoptive parent between 1999 and 2000. Owing to the fact that fewer than half of all agencies collect information on the sexual orientation of potential adoptive parents and do not actively track the statistics regarding the placement of children with adoptive parents who are homosexual, the Donaldson Institute was forced to estimate the number of such placements made. One adoption placement with a homosexual client per year was counted for statistical purposes. Based on these assumptions, there were an estimated 1,206 placements with homosexual parents (or roughly 1.3 percent of the total placements). This number is much higher in reality.

One aspect not yet discussed is the input of the birth parents in the proceedings of the adoption of their child. The Donaldson Institute delved into this issue and released the following findings: (1) About one-quarter of respondents said that prospective birth parents have objected to the placing of their child with gays or lesbians or have specifically requested that their child not be placed with homosexuals. At that time, nearly 15 percent of all agencies said birth parents had requested or chosen lesbian or gay prospective adoptive parents for their child on at least one occasion. (2) Although most agencies worked with lesbians and gays, only 19 percent sought them to be adoptive parents, and the vast majority of these (86.6 percent) relied on word-of-mouth for recruitment. Outreach efforts were made most often at agencies already willing to work with homosexuals (41.7 per- cent of Jewish-affiliated, 29.9 percent of private, nonreligiously affiliated, and 20 percent of public). (3) Similarly, adoption agencies focused on children with special needs were the most likely to make outreach efforts (32.1 percent) to gays and lesbians, followed by international-focused agencies (19.7 percent). (4) Nearly half of the agencies (48 percent) indicated an interest in receiving training to work with lesbian and gay prospective parents. Most likely to be interested were agencies already working with them; public, non- religiously affiliated, and Jewish- and Lutheran-affiliated agencies. Additionally, special needs programs and those with mixed needs were more likely to be interested in training than were those focusing on international and domestic infant adoptions.

There seems to be a growing interest in and flexibility toward the idea that homosexual prospective parents may be a viable option for the placement of children into homes to ultimately give them a more stable and nurturing environment than one would find in child welfare systems. However, religious affiliation of the agency remains an important and prominent issue. Over half of the agencies held no religious affiliation (55.38 per- cent), while the rest represented a variety of faiths, the largest of which was Catholic- affiliated at 14.8 percent, with various other denominations reporting 5 percent or less. With as many placements as are being made, it is clear that, somewhere along the line, the individuals who work in these agencies do actually want to place these children in good, stable, nurturing homes. However, a number of the agencies to which this survey was sent declined to participate. Their reasons for declining ranged from: (1) agency does not make adoption placements (36.7 percent); (2) agency does not work with homo- sexual clients (34.1 percent); (3) interested but agency director too busy (13.3 percent); (4) no reason given or not interested in the study (12.5 percent); (5) incomplete data from returned survey (3.0 percent). While there is still 0.4 percent missing from this data set, it does give some startling ideas about the various agencies' reactions to this survey.

At the time of this survey, only Florida, Mississippi, and Utah had statutory bans on or prohibitive barriers to homosexual adoption. One of the more shocking discoveries of the Donaldson Institute research is that 17 adoption directors from other states incorrectly reported that lesbians and gays were barred from adopting children in their states; another 31 respondents were unsure of the states' law on adoption by homosexuals. This is slightly alarming, considering the work that has been done to include homosexuals in the adoption process, and yet it would seem that they are being excluded yet again but this time by ignorance. Despite being somewhat unaware of their states' legislation on homosexual adoption, there was a clear distribution of policy acceptance levels regarding homosexual adoption. According to the Donaldson Institute research, about 20 percent of all respondents said that their agencies, on one or more occasion, had rejected applications from gay or lesbian individuals or couples. The reasons for the rejections were as follows: (1) un- realistic expectations, (2) psychological problems, (3) questionable motives for adopting, (4) relationship problems, (5) placement with homosexuals violates agency policy, (6) applicant's lifestyle incompatible with adoption, (7) placement with homosexuals prohibited by country of origin, (8) sexual orientation of applicant incompatible with adoption, (9) lack of adequate social support, (10) financial problems, (11) placement with homosexuals violates community standards, and (12) medical problems with the applicant.

References:

American Psychological Association, "Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children." 2004. www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/parenting.aspx

Black, James C., "Same-sex Parents and Their Children's Development." In Same-Sex Marriage: The Legal and Psychological Evolution in America, ed. Donald J. Cantor, Elizabeth Cantor, James C. Black, and Campbell D. Barrett. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2006.

Drescher, Jack, and Deborah Glazer, Gay and Lesbian Parenting. New York: Informa Healthcare, 2001.

Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, "Adoption by Lesbians and Gays: A National Survey of Adoption Agency Policies, Practices, and Attitudes." 2003. www.adoptioninstitute.org

Family Research Council, www.frc.org

Hennon, Charles B., Bruno Hildenbrand, and Andrea Schedle, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans- gendered (LGBT)  Families and Their Children." In Family Influences on Childhood Behavior and Development, ed. Thomas P. Gullota and Gary M. Blau. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Leung, Patrick, Stephen Erich, and Heather Kanenberg, "A Comparison of Family Functioning in Gay/Lesbian, Heterosexual, and Special Needs Adoption." Children and Youth Services Re- view 27 (2005): 1031-1044.

Mallon, Gerald P., Lesbian and Gay Foster and Adoptive Parents: Recruiting, Assessing, and Support- ing an Untapped Resource for Children and Youth. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, 2006.

Stacey, Judith, and Timothy J. Biblarz, "(How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?" American Sociological Review 66, no. 2 (2001): 159-183.

Free essays are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can order a term paper, research paper or custom TOPIC at our site which offers professional essay writing services. Get your high quality custom paper at relatively cheap prices. EssayEmpire is the best solution for those who seek help in essay writing related to TOPIC and other relevant topics.