Saturday, December 14, 2002

A story released today by the Star-Telegram reports that 9 year old Ethan will tell you that he's as normal as any other kid. He doesn't even think twice about having been adopted by two mommies.

"It's just like a regular family, especially when you get a little sister to annoy," he said, pretending to flick his 3-year-old sister's head.

His mothers, Robin and Karen, however, say same-sex adoptive parents have to strike a delicate balance between raising their children to be proud of their family and making them aware that not everyone accepts it.

"Ethan understands that there are some people that think our family is not OK, but luckily we are surrounded by many families that have been extremely supportive of us," Robin said.

Michael Craven, executive director of the Dallas-based Center for Decency, said that allowing same-sex couples to adopt breaks down society's moral codes.

"If you allow gay couples to adopt, what moral basis do you have to stop same-sex pedophiles from adopting if you lose all moral boundaries," he said. "Society has to determine what moral codes define society."

According to the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, the most common way for same-sex couples to adopt is using the second-parent adoption, in which one parent has legal custody -- by birth or adoption -- and the other then adopts using the stepparent adoption process.

Finding out how many same-sex couples are adopting is difficult because most adoption records are sealed, and no group previously has collected such numbers.

Corri Planck, spokeswoman for the Family Pride Coalition, said it's difficult to determine how many same-sex couples have children and, more specifically, have adopted.

"Studies range the number of gay parents in the country anywhere from 2 million to 16 million, and how they became parents is all over the map," Planck said. "The research is not as clear as we'd like."

New Jersey now allows openly gay couples to adopt jointly. Florida and Mississippi forbid adoption by homosexuals, and Utah does not allow adoption by any unmarried couple, according to the coalition.

In February, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy stating that it supported the right of same-sex couples to adopt their partner's children or to adopt jointly.

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