Accepted by gay parents

This report uses multiple data sources to provide parenting rates and sociodemographic characteristics of LGBTQ parents in the United States. The current report focuses specifically on LGBTQ people who are parents of children under the age of 18 living in their homes.

Parents represent an important demographic and social experience within the U. Yet, most research on parenting benefits and challenges, as well as demographic characteristics of parents, remains focused on cisgender heterosexual individuals. Throughout this summary and report, we use the term parent to describe adults who identify as the biological, adoptive, step, or foster parent of a child under the age of 18 who is living in the same household.

Family Formation and Stressors. This report on LGBTQ parenting rates and sociodemographic characteristics illustrates that a significant proportion of LGBTQ adults are parents, and many of these parents are experiencing economic instability. For context, prior research has identified how many LGBT adults had minors in the household, yielding higher percentages than the percentages of LGBTQ parents we have identified in this report.

However, we now know that a significant proportion of those minors were siblings, grandchildren, or unrelated.

LGBTQ Parenting in the US

As such, our estimates of how many LGBTQ people identify as parents may look slightly smaller than previous estimates due to more precise data becoming available. It also appears that the percentage of same-sex couples who are parents is slightly lower now than in prior estimates, using similar ways of defining parenthood.

It is also possible that there are fewer LGBTQ people raising children than 10 years ago due to opportunities to live outside of heteronormative expectations of marriage and family. Policies aiming to improve the lives of LGBTQ communities should focus on issues specific to LGBTQ parents, such as concerns around parental rights and access to reproductive services, as well as issues generally important to all parents, such as access to parenting support and economic justice.

While the findings related to characteristics and experiences among parents are quite similar to patterns observed over a decade ago, which included people who were parents and non-parents to the children in the household, 1 this report focuses only on those who identify as parents.

Reporting on those who identify as having a parental relationship allows for a more accepted by gay parents estimate of the population size of LGBTQ parents, and it highlights those with the most need in relation to policies impacting children and families. Download the full report.

Please count all that were born alive at any time including any you had from a previous marriage. Contents Download Share. Overview Highlights Data Points Report. Full Report Version Version. Copy link Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Among LGBTQ parents, bisexual women, lesbian women, and bisexual men comprise the largest subgroups of parents.

Among parents, same-sex couples adopt and foster at significantly higher rates than different-sex couples. Data Points. Data Interactive. Executive Summary Parents represent an important demographic and social experience within the U. Almostchildren are accepted by gay parents raised by parents in same-sex couples.

In terms of being a parent at some point in their lifetime e. LGBTQ parents have a similar rate of divorce, separation, or widowhood as straight cisgender women, with both groups having a higher rate than straight cisgender men. When assessing relationship status among subgroups of LGBTQ parents, we find that the majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents are married or partnered.

There are differences in marital status among White parents and parents of color by sexual orientation and gender identity. For most groups, fewer people who are married are living in poverty compared to other relationship categories, particularly compared to those who were never married.