The American Academy of Pediatrics, which offers guidance to parents on child-rearing issues from spanking to nutrition, is announcing its support today for the right of gay men and lesbians to adopt their partners' children.

"Children who are born to or adopted by one member of a same- sex couple deserve the security of two legally recognized parents," the academy says in a policy statement published in its scientific journal, Pediatrics.

The organization issued its statement after a committee reviewed two decades of studies. Most, it said, found that the children of gay or lesbian parents were as well adjusted socially and psychologically as the children of heterosexual parents.

The issue of so-called second-parent adoptions has been fiercely contested in many states. Three states effectively ban such adoptions, seven states and Washington, D.C., permit them by law or court ruling, and otherwise the legal status of such adoptions varies widely.

But many experts said the academy's endorsement was likely to carry weight in courts and legislatures because the group, which represents 55,000 pediatricians, enjoys wide respect.

Legalizing second-parent adoptions, the academy said in its statement, is in the best interest of children because it guarantees the same rights and protections to homosexual families that are routinely accorded to heterosexual parents and their children. For example, legal adoption ensures that a child will have access to health insurance benefits from both parents and to Social Security survivor benefits should either parent die, and that a continuing legal relationship with both parents will exist even if the parents separate, influencing matters like custody, visiting rights and child support.

"This is really about the needs of children," said Dr. Joseph Hagan, a pediatrician in private practice in Vermont and chairman of the academy's committee on psychosocial aspects of child and family health, which drafted the policy statement.

Dr. Ellen Perrin, a professor of pediatrics at Tufts New England Medical Center who was a consultant to the committee, said it had become clear to the academy "that children whose parents happen to be gay or lesbian were lacking some of the security that other children can assume."

The academy's policy is being praised by gay rights organizations. Patricia M. Logue, a senior counsel and family law expert for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national gay rights group, said the pediatricians' support was important because "a lot of the problem out there is that people are just not familiar with our families and they operate out of fear."

She added that many people "look to doctors to dispel those kinds of fears."

But Kenneth Connor, president of the Family Research Council, a group concerned with marriage and family issues, called it "regrettable that the academy has succumbed to political correctness and has abandoned substantive research."

Mr. Connor said his organization opposes any form of gay adoption because "it trivializes the contribution that each gender, male and female alike, make to the physical, emotional and psychosocial development of their children."

Most children of same-sex couples have only one legal parent, the parent who gave birth to or adopted them. The other, or second, parent must petition for adoption to establish a legally binding relationship with the child.

Many states have left decisions about second-parent adoptions to the courts. But three states — Vermont, Connecticut and California — have passed laws specifically allowing gay men and lesbians to adopt their partners' children. In four other states — Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts — and Washington, D.C., appellate courts have sanctioned the right to such adoptions.

By contrast, Florida prohibits gay men or lesbians from adopting children under any circumstances. Laws in two other states, Mississippi and Utah, effectively ban second-parent adoptions.

For Betsy Smith, 41, the executive director of a nonprofit organization in Boston, such geographical distinctions have meant staying in Massachusetts, where the Supreme Court has deemed second-parent adoptions legal, instead of moving back to Maine, where she and her partner are from, but where no court is known to have granted such an adoption.

Ms. Smith's partner, Jennifer Hoopes, gave birth to a boy, Justin, on Dec. 22 last year, and Ms. Smith is adopting him.

"Eventually we'll move back to Maine," she said. "But for now we will stay here and have two kids here so we can take advantage of the law."

In its statement, the pediatrics academy noted that "a large body of professional literature provides evidence that children with parents who are homosexual can have the same advantages for health, adjustment and development as can children whose parents are heterosexual."

A short report summarizing that literature accompanied the policy statement in the journal.

The academy also recommended in its statement that pediatricians familiarize themselves with the research and that they "advocate for initiatives that establish permanency through co-parent or second-parent adoption for children of same sex partners."

Dr. Judith Stacey, a professor of sociology at the University of California, agreed that the evidence that children of gay or lesbian parents incur no harm is convincing.

She said that other professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, have filed briefs on behalf of gay or lesbian parents in adoption cases or have passed resolutions endorsing such adoptions. Still, she said, the pediatricians' statement will be particularly influential "because they are generally regarded as not a radical group and they have a hands-on connection with kids."

But Dr. Steven Nock, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia whose field of research is family policy, said that while he was "broadly sympathetic with the goals" of the academy's statement, he was not convinced that the existing research was solid enough to form the basis for such a policy.

"Much of the literature does generally portray the kids of gays and lesbians as doing just fine," Dr. Nock said. "The only question is whether a broad-based group of scientists would accept the literature as being objective and scientific."

He added that he had "some questions about the methods that were used in some of these studies and the methods that were used to extrapolate from them."

For her part, Dr. Stacey said "history indicates" that the legalization of second-parent adoption "is eventually going to happen, and it is certainly happening internationally and in all the other advanced industrial nations."

"People are already doing this, de facto," she said. "The question is are you going to give parents the same rights, and therefore the kids the same rights, and the same stability in their connection to their parents that other kids have?"

Pediatric Group Endorses Adoption by Gay Parents
By Merritt McKinney
Reuters, Monday February 4 10:23 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children of gay and lesbian couples deserve to have both their parents recognized by the law, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). To that end, the group has issued a policy statement in favor of adoption rights for the second parent, or ``coparent'' in same-sex relationships.

A review of published studies indicates that children with homosexual parents ``can have the same advantages and same expectations for health, adjustment and development as can children whose parents are heterosexual,'' according to the group.

The policy statement grew out of concern for the needs of children, according to Dr. Ellen C. Perrin, a professor of pediatrics at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Perrin serves as a consultant to the AAP's Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health committee, which drafted the policy.

``Those children are our patients,'' she said. ``Children's families are very important to their well-being.''

More and more children are being raised by same-sex couples, but there is a gap in the legal and social recognition of these situations, according to Perrin. The aim of the policy, she said, is ``to close that gap.''

The statement ``supports the right of children to have continuity in nurturing,'' Perrin said.

In the statement, the AAP committee notes that in most cases, a child in a same-sex household has only one legal parent--the child's biological or adoptive parent. The other parent in the family, the second or coparent, is in a kind of parental limbo. He or she takes part in the child's upbringing but does not usually have legal rights or obligations.

Laws to allow second-parent adoption have been enacted in some states and considered by others, the report states. The committee points out that legislation that makes same-sex relationships the legal equivalent of marriage, such as Vermont's civil union law, can also provide security to children in same-sex families.

But in most cases, second-parent adoptions are handled on a case-by-case basis, the report indicates.

``It is important that a broad ethical mandate exist nationally that will guide the courts in providing the necessary protection for children through coparent adoption,'' the policy states.

According to the AAP statement, second parents should maintain parental rights and responsibilities if the first parent dies or becomes ill.

And if the couple separates, coparents should have the right to custody and visitation, the report notes. Both parents should be responsible for the support of the child if the couple separates.

The policy also takes into account the health needs of children. Coparent adoption, the policy states, would ensure that a child is eligible for health insurance through both parents. Both parents should have equal rights to consent to medical care for a child and to make important decisions about the child, including health and education decisions.

Allowing second-parent adoption would also allow a child access to entitlements such as Social Security survivors' benefits in the case of the death of either parent, the policy states.

Perrin said she hopes that the statement will bolster the cases of same-sex couples who are trying to establish coparent status.

``This policy statement will serve as a support for them in court,'' she said.

Another goal of the policy, Perrin said, is to inform the wider public about the situation of these families, who ``are in most ways like every other family. The only difference is that the parents are not of opposite sexes.''

Perrin pointed out that ``there are absolutely no credible scientific data'' that children reared by same-sex couples are at any disadvantage compared with children whose parents are heterosexual.

Same-sex couples are no better or worse parents than opposite-sex couples, Perrin said. ``They are just parents,'' she said, who have the same concerns about their children's safety and nurturing.

Perrin said she hopes other parents will consider what a disadvantage it would be for them if one of two parents raising a child did not have legal security.

SOURCE: Pediatrics 2002;109:339-340.

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