Information About Same-Sex Parents

The Human Rights Campaign estimates that same-sex couples are raising children in at least 96% of all counties in the U. S. At least one out of three lesbian couples and one out of five gay male couples are raising children nationwide. There are also an additional number of LGBT parents whom we cannot accurately count. (See COLAGE for a discussion.) Many leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have said parents’ sexual orientation is irrelevant to their ability to raise children. At the same time, in many states, same-sex couples cannot legally establish a joint relationship to children they are raising together. Furthermore, all same-sex parents and their children are denied the 1,138 federal protections of marriage. In most states (with the exception of those in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont) they are also denied hundreds of state marital benefits. This can impact children’s quality of life in many ways, including: A reduced chance of having family health insurance through an employer, or, at best, higher insurance costs than for the families of married heterosexual workers. Loss of Social Security benefits when one parent dies. Additional federal income tax for a same-sex family where one parent stays at home with the children. (Information from the Human Rights Campaign: The Cost of Marriage Inequality to Children and their Same-Sex Parents, April, 2004 and Professional Opinion.)