July 2006 issue of PEDIATRICS, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, (the nation's largest pediatrician organization) has posted a report finding that children of same-sex couples would benefit from their parents being allowed to legally marry. In January 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics joined the American Psychological Association and National Association of Social Workers in supporting gay second-parent adoption, saying that children who grow up with lesbian or gay parents fare just like children with straight parents. Second-parent adoption provides more stability and support to the child.
According to an ABC.com poll from March 2002, the majority of Americans support gay adoption.
How many children are already raised by gay parents? Estimates vary from 6 to 14 million:
The American Bar Association, Family Law Section, estimates that there are four million gay and lesbian parents raising eight to 10 million children.
The ACLU estimates that in America eight to 13 million children are being raised by gay or lesbian parents.
Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund estimates there are from six to 10 million lesbian and gay parents who are mothers and fathers with an estimated six to 14 million children.
The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse estimates there are 1.5 to five million lesbian mothers and one to three million homosexual fathers. As of 1990, between six and 14 million children were being raised in homosexual households.
In the May 2000 edition of "Demography," published by the Population Association of America, Dan Black of the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University in New York wrote that 21.6 percent of lesbian homes and 5.2 percent of male homosexual homes have children present.
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