The Bottom Line
This stand-alone Executive Summary provides an overview of All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families and its recommendations in capsule form.
Also available: the Full Report and the Condensed Version.
You are here:
All Children Matter: Executive Summary
Recommended Citation
Movement Advancement Project, Family Equality Council, and Center for American Progress. October 2011. All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families. https://mapresearch.org/report/all-children-matter-executive-summary/.
Related resources
Family Leave Laws
State family leave laws covering same-sex couples govern whether an LGBT person can take leave from work to care for their same-sex spouse or partner.
Parental Recognition Laws
Legal recognition of the parent-child relationship ("parentage") is important for many reasons, from healthcare decisions and school settings to economic security, everyday life, and much more. These maps illustrate some of the pathways to parental recognition that are especially important for LGBTQ families.
LGBTQ Families
LGBTQ families are part of the fabric of neighborhoods and communities across the United States. An estimated two million children are being raised by LGBTQ parents. Decades of research shows that children with LGBTQ parents grow up as happy, healthy and well-adjusted as their peers.
LGBTQ People
LGBTQ people in the United States have families, work hard to earn a living, pay taxes, and serve their communities and their country. MAP offers a collection of resources addressing the many aspects of LGBTQ people’s lives.
Economic Security
LGBTQ people in the United States have the same worries as others when it comes to finding good jobs, providing for their families, and saving for the future. But research consistently finds that LGBTQ people and their families are more likely to struggle economically and experience higher rates of poverty
Adoption
There are more than 440,000 children in foster care across the country, with more than 125,000 children waiting to be adopted. LGBTQ people have long served as foster and adoptive parents. Research shows they are more likely to foster or adopt than their peers. Despite this, some states have passed
Talking About Family Recognition Laws & LGBTQ Families
Family recognition laws establish a secure legal relationship between a child and their parent or parents. Learn conversation approaches that help people understand why strong legal child-parent ties are essential to a child’s security and well-being and why families—no matter how they are formed—should be treated equally under the law.
Community Acceptance: Resources for Communities Working with Transgender & Gender Diverse Children
Many people don’t understand what it means to be transgender or gender diverse, so some parents or family members struggle when their child comes out as transgender or gender diverse. It is natural for parents to have questions, and this document, jointly created by the Biden Foundation, Gender Spectrum, and
