Religious Left

A family, traditionally, has meant man, woman and child. Not any more, as children raised by gay and lesbian couples are on the rise internationally. Laws differ from country to country and even state to state. In the US, Florida is the only state that bans anyone who is a "homosexual" from adopting a child. Utah does that indirectly by restraining unmarried couples from adopting. Washington DC and 11 states, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Vermont explicitly state that sexual orientation cannot prevent gays and lesbians from adopting. Across Europe, in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden same-sex couples have been given the right to adopt a child. Australia, Canada, South Africa and Israel are some of the other countries to allow it. The American Psychological Association in its Resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children in July 2004, said, "There is no scientific evidence that parenting effectivenes...

In the 1990s, Colorado attempted to yank all possibility of legal protections away from GLBT people. This week, the state welcomes its first same-sex adoptive parents. . "People say, they need two parents. We say, they’ve got two parents," said Jeannie DiClementi, quoted in the Rocky Mountain News article that was posted yesterday. . DiClementi and her partner Mary Ross are the first Colorado same-sex couple to adopt under a newly enacted state law that provides for second-parent adoption, which allows grandparents, aunts and uncles, and same-sex parents to adopt children. . Said DiClementi, "This is a victory for children." . The bill was signed into law last May by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, who said at that time, "This law gives children in a one-parent family a chance to grow up in a two-parent home." Continued the governor, "This law will give children a better chance to succeed." . http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt...