Gay Parenting
Gay parenting—male and female parents who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender—has become more common in recent years, and gay parents have been awarded rights similar to those of heterosexual parents in most of the country including CA. There are, however, still parts of the United States that do not recognize gay parents as equal to heterosexual parents under the law.
As with heterosexuals, the means used to have a child include pregnancy, adoption, surrogacy, gestational surrogacy, sperm donation, and egg donation. Increasingly organizations have officially supported adoption by same-sex couples and/or provide information specific to the needs of families with same-sex parents. Those groups include the American Psychological Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the American Bar Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
See also:
Adoption
Attachment
For further reading:
Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents, by Abigail Garner. Harper Collins
www.aafp.org
www.aap.org
www.abanet.org
www.apa.org/pi/parent.html
www.apsa.org
www.cwla.org/programs/culture/glbtqposition.htm
www.psych.org