Several New Hampshire lawmakers are sponsoring a bill to clarify the state’s policies on adoption by same-sex couples, and explicitly permit it in all 10 counties. Currently, adoption law allows a married couple or an unmarried adult to adopt. It does not specifically permit or deny it to two committed unmarried adults. This means that […]
Sesame Street today featured one of its human characters, Gina the Veterinarian, adopting a baby from Guatemala. The amazing thing wasn’t just that they covered adoption, but that they also chose a single mom for the adoptive mother. (We’ll see if the right wing jumps all over this like they jumped on Murphy Brown, or
November is National Adoption Month, first celebrated (as a single week) in 1976. The observance culminates on National Adoption Day, November 18, when “courts and communities coast-to-coast will come together to finalize thousands of adoptions of children from foster care and to celebrate all families who adopt.” President Bush, like his predecessors back to Gerald
The San Francisco Chronicle has a great article on Gregory Stewart and Stillman White and their five adopted children. It’s a wonderful family portrait, showing the usual parenting issues the two face as well as the extras—being gay parents, adoptive parents, parents to at-risk children, and white parents to children of color. Bonus points to
Karen at Blogging Baby has pointed out an article on financing adoption, courtesy of Adoptive Families magazine. It’s a long list of ideas, from people who’ve actually used them: pinching pennies, refinancing one’s home, taking a loan from one’s 401k, and even selling items on eBay. If you’re looking to adopt (or need to pay
USA Today has just published a piece on same-sex adoption, noting that 16 states have now taken action to pass laws or create November ballot initiatives to ban it. One member of a conservative “pro-family” (gag!) group sees this as an extension of same-sex marriage bans: by preventing same-sex marriage, and then defining marriage as
Adoptive Family magazine has a good article on how to deal with insensitive comments relatives may make about adopted children. They recommend that you: Appoint yourself ambassador of adoption. “Immunize” yourself before family encounters. Do a background check [with other relatives, not the FBI] on problematic relatives. Hold your ground firmly but with compassion. Much
Some good news to end the year: Same-sex couples (and heterosexual, non-married couples) in the UK are now legally able to adopt children or become co-parents through in-vitro fertilization. The Adoption and Children Act also gives parents who gave up children for adoption the right to try and trace their children, and to be put
