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PEDIATRICS Vol. 111 No. 1 January 2003, pp. 225

Same-Sex Parenting

To the Editor.—

The American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) applauds the February 2002 policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)¹ 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.

The AFTA consists 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, the 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 2 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.

Janine Roberts, EdD
American Family Therapy Academy
Washington, DC 20006, USA

REFERENCE

1. American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. Coparent or second-parent adoption by same-sex parents. Pediatrics.2002; 109 :339 –340[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2003 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

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This Article Extract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Roberts, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Roberts, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?