Adoption gay rights

Adoption

Map

State Religious Exemption Laws

State religious exemption laws permit people, churches, non-profit organizations, and sometimes corporations to seek exemptions from state laws that burden their religious beliefs. These laws have recently been used as a defense when businesses discriminate against or refuse service to LGBTQ customers and same-sex couples.

View the Map

Map

Foster and Adoption Laws

Foster look after non-discrimination laws defend LGBTQ foster parents from discrimination by foster care agencies and officials. Some states explicitly restrict foster care by same-sex parents. Other states ban adoption by unmarried couples, effectively resulting in a ban on foster care by same-sex couples if marriage for lgbtq+ couples is not available in that state.

View the Map

Map

Other Parental Recognition Laws

Donor insemination laws apply when women in a queer relationship have a child through donor insemination, granting legal parenting rights to the non-biological mother as well as the birth mother. De facto parenting laws apply when someone is raising a child but is not a leg

The international legal framework of adoption rights of the LGBTQI+ community: status and key challenges

Tuesday 22 April 2025

Renato Guerrieri

Guyer & Regules, Montevideo

renato.guerrieri@guyer.com.uy

Italo Raymondo

Guyer & Regules, Montevideo

iraymondo@guyer.com.uy

Introduction

Adoption is a legal proceeding that allows an individual or couple to adopt a child who is not a biological relative, seeking social and family protection, and ultimately the wellbeing and best interest of the adopted child, by creating a family bond and giving adopting parents the obligations, duties and rights of parents.

For the LGBTQI+ group, in spite of the daunting challenges of the often lengthy, burdensome and emotional adoption proceedings itself, adoption is a relevant mechanism, and in many cases the only one, of constituting a family.[1] This is in lieu of biological means in most cases, and with legal limitations and/or voids and cultural and/or economic barriers regarding other potential alternatives in many jurisdictions, such as donor conception including IVF, surrogacy, or co-parenting.

However, LGBTQI+ adoption is also legally limited across most jurisdiction

Adoption Rights For Queer Couples

Should gay couples have the equal adoption rights as straight couples? Homosexual couples’ adoption rights are important to me because I personally know queer couples who are affected by this issue. Why does it matter if they’re not straight? It doesn’t matter what the adopting parents’ sexual orientation is, all couples should have the same adoption rights and should be held to the same standards regardless of their orientation. There should be more information free about the benefits of gay couples adopting.

If people are informed of the good things about gay couples adopting children then these couples will encounter less persecution and disappointment during the adoption process. According to the Atlantic article, “We are holding our breath,” Bode admits. “We’re hoping for the best and planning for the worst, which is what many LGBT families are forced to do in the current system.” Lgbtq+ couples who crave to adopt children have a much harder time because they do not have what some people see as the “right” family makeup. If all couples had the same adoption rights guaranteed, and if the public had more information about gay couples adopting, then t

How Did the Regulation Regarding Same-Sex Adoption Transform in the U.S.?

For the longest time, lgbtq+ couples weren’t able to adopt children in this country. If a LGBT person was lucky, they could adopt a toddler on their own and then raise the youngster with their partner. But to do this, they had to deny their sexual orientation. Adoption agencies would never approve an adoption for someone who was LGBT.

As more and more states legalized gay marriage, more LGBT couples became able to adopt children. This isn’t because adoption agencies suddenly ruined their biases and discriminatory attitudes. It’s only because there was no longer a legal basis for their denying same-sex adoptions.

Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage, adoption agencies relied on an applicant’s marital status to refuse an adoption. This meant that, since LGBT couples couldn’t legally marry, they couldn’t legally adopt children either.

All of this changed a few years ago. There were two major cases that finally made LGBT couple adoptions workable. Houston LGBT lawyers are very familiar with these cases as they paved the way for their clients to achieve their dreams of becoming parents.

Obergefell v H