Professional Organizations on LGBT Parenting
The prevailing professional opinion is that a parent's sexual orientation has nothing to do with his or her ability to be a good parent. The nation's leading child welfare, psychological and children's health organizations also have issued policy or position statements declaring that a parent's sexual orientation is irrelevant to his or her ability to raise a child. Many also have condemned discrimination based on sexual orientation in adoption, custody and other parenting situations and called for equal rights for all parents and children. Further, several of these organizations also have issued statements declaring that a parent's gender identity and/or physical appearance is irrelevant to his or her abilities as a parent.
Read what professional organizations say about LGBT parenting:
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2009)
- American Academy of Family Physicians (2002)
- American Academy of Pediatrics (2002)
- American Bar Association (1995, 1999 and 2003)
- American Medical Association (2004)
- American Psychiatric Association (1997 and 2002)
- American Psychoanalytic Association (2002)
- American Psychological Association (1976 and 2004)
- Child Welfare League of America (1988)
- National Adoption Center (1998)
- National Association of Social Workers (2002)
- North American Council on Adoptable Children (1998)
- Voice for Adoption (2006)