Adoption, International

Adoption by lesbians and gay men is becoming increasingly common, not only in most areas of the United States but in many other countries around the world including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Israel, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, and parts of Australia. In each of these countries, laws have been passed supporting adoption by nonheterosexual individuals and/or couples. Most children adopted by sexual-minority families are born and placed for adoption domestically, either by their birth parents during infancy, or by the country’s child welfare system, after the children have been removed from their birth families because of adverse living conditions. In other cases, lesbians and gay men have become parents through international adoption (i.e., they ...