Definition of the Family: AFTA Endorses the American Academy of Pediatrics
By Anne Bernstein
Editor's Note: The policy committee has historically proposed position statements to the board, endorsing a broad, inclusive definition of the family. Anne Bernstein laid the groundwork for the Policy Committee's recommendation that AFTA support AAP's stand. With the approval of the Executive Committee the proposal was presented to and passed by the Board. Following Anne's article is a copy of Janine Robert's letter to the AAP Journal Editor.
AFTA has voted to endorse the February 2002 American Academy of Pediatrics policy advocating that children who are born to or adopted by one member of a same-sex couple be guaranteed the security of two legally recognized parents. Like the AAP, AFTA supports legislative and legal efforts to provide the possibility of adoption of the child by the second parent or co-parent in families headed by a same-sex couple.
The AAP policy statement reads as follows:
Children deserve to know that their relationships with both of their parents are stable and legally recognized. This applies to all children, whether their parents are of the same or opposite sex. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes that a considerable body of professional literature provides evidence that children with parents who are homosexual can have the same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment, and development as can children whose parents are heterosexual. When 2 adults participate in parenting a child, they and the child deserve the serenity that comes with legal recognition.
Children born or adopted into families headed by partners who are of the same sex usually have only 1 biologic or adoptive legal parent. The other partner in a parental role is called the "co-parent" or "second parent." Because these families and children need the permanence and security that are provided by having 2 fully sanctioned and legally defined parents, the Academy supports the legal adoption of children by co-parents or second parents. Denying legal parent status through adoption to co-parents or second parents prevents these children from enjoying the psychologic and legal security that comes from having 2 willing, capable, and loving parents.
Several states have considered or enacted legislation sanctioning second-parent adoption by partners of the same sex. In addition, legislative initiatives assuring legal status equivalent to marriage for gay and lesbian partners, such as the law approving civil unions in Vermont, can also attend to providing security and permanence for the children of those partnerships.
Many states have not yet considered legislative actions to ensure the security of children whose parents are gay or lesbian. Rather, adoption has been decided by probate or family courts on a case-by-case basis. Case precedent is limited. It is important that a broad ethical mandate exist nationally that will guide the courts in providing necessary protection for children through co-parent adoption.
Co-parent or second-parent adoption protects the child's right to maintain continuing relationships with both parents. The legal sanction provided by co-parent adoption accomplishes the following:
- Guarantees that the second parent's custody rights and responsibilities will be protected if the first parent were to die or become incapacitated. Moreover, second-parent adoption protects the child's legal right of relationships with both parents. In the absence of coparent adoption, members of the family of the legal parent, should he or she become incapacitated, might successfully challenge the surviving coparent's rights to continue to parent the child, thus causing the child to lose both parents.
- Protects the second parent's rights to custody and visitation if the couple separates. Likewise, the child's right to maintain relationships with both parents after separation, viewed as important to a positive outcome in separation or divorce of heterosexual parents, would be protected for families with gay or lesbian parents.
- Establishes the requirement for child support from both parents in the event of the parents' separation.
- Ensures the child's eligibility for health benefits from both parents.
- Provides legal grounds for either parent to provide consent for medical care and to make education, health care, and other important decisions on behalf of the child.
- Creates the basis for financial security for children in the event of the death of either parent by ensuring eligibility to all appropriate entitlements, such as Social Security survivors benefits.
On the basis of the acknowledged desirability that children have and maintain a continuing relationship with 2 loving and supportive parents, the Academy recommends that pediatricians do the following:
- Be familiar with professional literature regarding gay and lesbian parents and their children.
- Support the right of every child and family to the financial, psychologic, and legal security that results from having legally recognized parents who are committed to each other and to the welfare of their children.
- Advocate for initiatives that establish permanency through co-parent or second-parent adoption for children of same-sex partners through the judicial system, legislation, and community education.
The full technical report, with supporting research evidence, can be found at the website of the American Academy of Pediatrics http://www.aap.org/policy/020008t.html
Letter to the Editor,
PEDIATRICS, The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Jerold F. Lucey, MD, Editor
Pediatrics Editorial Office
University of Vermont College of Medicine
89 Beaumont Avenue
Given Building, Room D201
Burlington, VT 05405-0068
The American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) applauds the February 2002 policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics supporting legislative and judicial efforts to provide second parent or co-parent adoptions to same-sex couples and endorses its recommendations, including the need for health care providers of all specialties to educate themselves about gay and lesbian parents.
AFTA is an academy of family therapy teachers, researchers, and practitioners who work together to continue the development of the fields of family therapy and systemic practices. An interdisciplinary group of mental health professionals that includes many of the founders of the field of family therapy, AFTA is a forum for the discussion of issues in the clinical practice and teaching and in research and theory building on therapeutic and family systems and their contexts.
It has long been AFTA policy that public policies based on narrow definitions of what constitutes "the family" are not relevant to the realities of family life in the United States and that the development of multiple family forms, in fact, is evidence of the family's resilience and adaptability in our highly diverse, multicultural society.
We are in full agreement with the AAP's advocacy of the rights of all children to benefit from the opportunity to have two legal parents, to protect the parent-child relationship of children and their psychological parents and to provide the economic benefits that accrue to children from the legal recognition of the de facto parenthood of a legal parent's gay or lesbian partner.
Yours truly,
Janine Roberts, Ed.D.
President, American Family Therapy Academy
Anne C. Bernstein is Treasurer of AFTA and edits the Website. She is a family psychologist and mediator in Berkeley, CA.
Hinda Winawer is Policy Committee Chair and AFTA Board Member. She is Director of the Center for Family, Community, & Social Justice, and Faculty, Ackerman Institute for the Family.
Note: After this issue, I will resign as editor of the Policy Column in order to devote more energy to the development of the committee and its activities in my new capacity as Committee Chair. I am happy to announce that Rachel Dash will become column editor. I will work in collaboration with Rachel, as I had with past committee chairs and look forward to a partnership that will enhance the work of the Policy Committee. —HW
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