(reprinted from CARE's website www.secondparentadoption.org)

This legislation protects children

This bill changes the Adoption Code to allow for two unmarried partners to jointly adopt a child from foster care, giving them the financial, legal, and emotional security of TWO parents, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation or marital status. It also allows an already existing legal parent to consent to her partner adopting the child they are raising together. This bill ensures that children will be provided with the financial support, medical insurance, social security and pension benefits and medical authorizations by both parents. Children will be further protected by this law in the event of death or separation of the parents.

All children deserve the protection of legal parent-child relationships

Because of the substantial number of children in need of permanent homes, adoption laws since the 1970’s have been EXPANDED to increase the number of potential adoptive parents. Who can adopt is based on parenting ability and not on personal characteristics such as marital status, race, religion or sexual orientation. This bill expands the number of prospective adoptive parents increasing the number of children who will benefit from adoption.

The Vermont Social and Rehabilitation Services agency, the equivalent to Michigan’s Department of Human Services, actively recruits foster/adoptive parents from the gay/lesbian community. Officials at this agency changed the policy because the number of children in foster care is significantly higher than the amount of competent foster homes available; AND, they believe gay/lesbian parents are especially effective in raising special-needs children. Vermont has approximately 1600 children waiting for permanent homes, and Michigan has more than double that amount.

Current adoption laws are costly to Michigan taxpayers-we need change

As of July 31, 2003, 19,490 Michigan children were in foster care. It costs the state and its taxpayers $5,110 per year for one child age 0-12 and $6,314 per year for one child age 13-18 to be in foster care. Allowing two unmarried partners to adopt jointly would give a child 2 permanent legal parents and will decrease the number of children in temporary homes or facilities and will save the state money (Family Independence Agency, 2003).

In 2000, 23.6% of children age 0-18 in Michigan were on state assisted Medicaid. Second parent adoptions can ensure that BOTH parents can provide insurance for their children without having to rely on Medicaid or being UNINSURED in the event of death or separation (Kids Count, 2002 Data Book).

National and Michigan child welfare experts endorse 2nd parent adoption

National experts including the American Pediatric Association, American Psychological Association, Child Welfare League of America, North American Council on Adoptable Children and the American Academy of Family Physicians publicly endorse second parent adoptions because it is in the child’s best interests to have legal relationships with both parents, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation. In Michigan, the National Association of Social Workers and the Washtenaw Area Council for Children have publicly endorsed second parent adoption.

The North American Council on Adoptable Children has a policy that states: “Everyone with the potential to successfully parent a child in foster care and adoption is entitled to fair and equal consideration regardless of sexual orientation or differing lifestyle or physical appearance” (North American Council on Adoptable Children, NACAC, 970 Raymond Avenue, Suite 106 St. Paul, MN 55114).

A national study conducted by the Evan P. Donaldson Institute found that 60% of adoption agencies surveyed accept applications for gay/lesbian parents. Further, 32% of adoption agencies focusing on special-needs children formally recruited adoptive parents in the gay/lesbian community (see Adoption by Lesbians and Gays: A National Survey of Adoption Agency Policies, Practices, and Attitudes by David Brodzinsky and the Evan P. Donaldson Institute, 2003).

Judith Faust, a professor of social work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and former head of the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services, testified against the Arkansas ban against gays adopting that blanket exclusions like the one being challenged reduce the pool of qualified foster parents and prevent caseworkers from placing some children with the families best suited for their needs.

Dr. Michael Lamb, a developmental psychologist from Cambridge University in England who until recently was a senior research scientist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, testified in this same Arkansas trial that children raised by gay parents are just as well-adjusted as other children.

Expand the Michigan Adoption Code

This bill focuses on PROTECTING children, not on DENYING children already in two-parent, loving homes the legal, financial, and emotional security of second parent adoption.

This legislature should pass this bill to show that it truly wants to strengthen and protect Michigan families.