According to a report by The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles, more than half of gay men and 41 percent of lesbians want to have children, and an estimated two million GLB people are interested in adopting.

One in six gay men have fathered or adopted a child, and an estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent, which is about 4 percent of all adopted children in the United States. More than 16,000 adopted children are living with lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest number among the states, the 2007 report noted.

Among other key findings, the report also noted:

Same-sex couples raising adopted children are older, more educated and have more economic resources than other adoptive parents;

Adopted children with same-sex parents are younger and more likely to be foreign born;

An estimated 14,100 foster children are living with gay or lesbian parents;

Gay and lesbian parents are raising three percent of foster children in the United States; and

A National ban on GLB foster care could cost from $87 to $130 million.

In Arkansas, the Family Council Action Committee (FCAC) is gathering signatures to qualify for the Nov. 4 ballot a measure banning unmarried couples from adopting or serving as foster parents in the state. People living with domestic partners would be included in the ban. The FCAC was instrumental in passing an Arkansas constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2004.

California is generally accepting of surrogacy agreements, particularly when the couple seeking surrogacy has contributed some of the genetic material. While the state has no statute directly addressing surrogacy, state courts have used the Uniform Parentage Act to interpret several cases concerning surrogacy agreements. In fact, one of the most influential cases regarding surrogacy rights (Johnson v. Calvert) was decided in California.

In 1993’s Johnson v. Calvert, the California Supreme Court held that the intended parents in a gestational-surrogacy agreement (an agreement in which the carrying mother had no genetic relationship to the baby) should be recognized as the natural and legal parents. Since the intended mother donated the egg but the surrogate mother gave birth, the court decided that the person who intended to procreate should be considered the natural mother.

A 1998 case, Buzzanca v. Buzzanca, addressed the issue of traditional surrogacy agreements in which the surrogate mother has been artificially inseminated. In this case, a surrogate mother was impregnated using her egg and anonymous sperm. In other words, neither of the intended parents had a genetic link to the child. The court found that when a married couple uses non-genetically related embryo and sperm implanted into a surrogate intended to procreate a child, they are the lawful parents of the child. Another similar 1998 case, In Re Marriage of Moschetta, dealt with the same issue, except that the intended parents had separated. In that case, the court awarded legal parent rights to the intended father and surrogate mother.

The Human Rights Campaign Family Project is a comprehensive resource for GLBT families providing information on adoption, civil unions, custody and visitation, donor insemination, family law, marriage, parenting, schools, senior health and housing, state laws and legislation, straight spouses and transgender issues. For more information, visit www.hrc.org/parenting.

Family Matters, a program of The San Diego LGBT Community Center, resources and support for families with one or more GLBT parent, and individuals or couples considering parenthood. For more information, visit www.sdfamilymatters.org.

is a news and social networking site for GLBT families, and provides information on single parenting, reproduction, surrogacy, adoption, foster parenting and family life, among other things. For more information, visit www.prideparenting.com.