4 Reasons to Choose Lesbian Adoptive Parents for Your Child
When you’re looking for adoptive parents for your child, you have a lot of choices to consider. What sort of neighborhood should your child grow up in? Do you want them to grow up in a household with or without older siblings? Do you want a religion to be a significant part of their household environment? Who do you want to raise your child? A mom and a dad? Two moms or two dads? A single parent?
While it may be comfortable to go with society’s current nuclear family ideal, there are a number of benefits to choosing a family that might look a little different. Here are 4 reasons to choose lesbian adoptive parents for your child.
- They have Different Life Experiences
If you don’t have many LGBT+ friends and aren’t familiar with the community, you might feel uncomfortable at the thought of meeting new people in this community. That’s okay! Meeting new people in general is scary, especially if you’ve grown up thinking they’re different from you. But we promise, they’re human, just like you. They’ve just had different life experiences, and that can be a wonderful thing for both you and your child!
Being exposed to different life experiences will help your child grow up to be a more open-minded and empathetic person. They will better understand how to work in a diverse environment and approach problems from multiple perspectives. You’ll see this growth in yourself as well, especially if you’re choosing an open or semi-open adoption, where you’ll be able to have continued contact with your child and their adoptive parents after the adoption.
- They can Help Your Child through Difficult Times
One of the sad realities of modern-day America is there are still people who have prejudices and bully members of the LGBT+ community. Your child may even experience bullying just for having lesbian parents, as those feelings tend to be passed down through generations until the cycle is broken.
But studies show that children raised by LGBT+ couples and individuals tend to be more resilient. Because most lesbian parents have likely experienced bullying in the past, they know what it’s like to go through that, and will be able to help your child through bullying as well — whether it’s related to LGBT+ issues or not. This may be shown in how well they relate to your child and the issues he or she experiences, or in aiding with coming up with coping mechanisms and ways to solve the problems your child faces.
- They Can Help Your Child with Self-Identity
While growing up with lesbian parent will NOT “turn your child gay” (after all, most gay children come from straight households), if your child ever has questions about their sexual orientation, gender or other LGBT+ issues, lesbian parents will definitely be able to help your child through that questioning process without judgement.
Consider this: trans teens with social support are 49% less likely to have suicidal thoughts than those without strong support, and support specifically from parents is a statistically significant factor! Furthermore, of those who have suicidal thoughts, trans teens with strong social support are 82% less likely to attempt suicide than those without. Growing up with lesbian parents means your child will be more likely to feel comfortable coming out to them and be accepted by them. Additionally, even if the parents haven’t had to deal with gender issues and questioning gender personally before, they will likely have friends who have or be part of a community that will be able to help and provide support.
- They Choose Love
With the current state of our country, being openly lesbian isn’t easy. To be in a lesbian marriage takes an amount of bravery right now. That bravery is powered by love. Lesbian couples and individuals have chosen to love so wholeheartedly that they won’t hide that love from the world, even if it means some people who still don’t understand may try to do them emotional or physical harm. It is a house with that love that your child would be welcomed into. You better believe a child in that home will be just as fervently loved as they love each other!
They choose love, and they are choosing to adopt. They want to bring a child into their home, into their family. This isn’t something they can just do lightly or would happen on accident. They have needed to think about this choice and examine it and choose it. While this is true for many adoptive parents, it carries a bit of a different weight when you think about how lesbian and LGBT+ couples have already proven just how important the choice to love is to them.
Reasons to Choose Lesbian Adoptive Parents for Your Child: Why Not?
So really, why not choose lesbian or LGBT+ adoptive parents for your child? You should feel comfortable given lesbian adoptive parents as equal of a shot as you would give any other prospective adoptive parents.
If you feel uncomfortable from lack of experience with the LGBT+ community, do some research! Reach out to parenting and LGBT+ groups on Facebook. Talk to prospective adoptive parents from a variety of backgrounds and learn from them what resources are in the area, what their experiences have been and how they’ve been shaped by them. Many people will be happy to share these things if you genuinely want to learn and grow.
When choosing who you want to place your baby with, get to know a variety of prospective adoptive parents. Consider lesbian adoptive parents. The important thing is to find the family who will love, support and provide for your child. You never know — you may find an adoptive family who just clicks right into place somewhere you never expected.
Adoption Choices of New York is available to assist with your adoption plan. Call us, text us, email us; we are here for you!
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Meet the Author: Darby Summers is an avid fan of fantasy and sci-fi stories in all mediums, and aspires to share a story of her own to add to the genres she has adored her entire life. Raised in a house with the rule: “You can stay up as late as you want, as long as you’re reading”, Darby’s passion for reading, literature, and language was inspired at a young age, and continued through her achievement of a Bachelor’s in English from Allegheny College in 2017.
When she isn’t absorbed in the latest series to capture her attention, Darby enjoys working on cosplays and going to cons with friends. Her perfect night consists of staying in playing games (of the video, board or card varieties), making some delicious homemade pizza, and settling in on the couch for a movie with her husband, Adam, and cat, Sylvie.
