Issue
Petitioners asked the Court to decide whether the constitution requires Colombia to allow same-sex couples to jointly adopt children and to allow LGB individuals to adopt a same-sex partner’s child through second parent adoption.
Impact
Same-sex couples and LGB individuals in Colombia would gain adoption rights if the Court were to decide that barring joint and second-parent adoptions violates the Colombian Constitution.
Summary
This brief presents research on LGB parenting. The research shows that LGB people become parents in a variety of ways and that LGB parents are similar to non-LGB parents in terms of mental health, parenting stress, and parenting competence. Children of LGB parents are also similar to the children of non-LGB parents in terms of quality of self-esteem, quality of life, psychological adjustment, social functioning, and the relationship between the child and his or her parents. The lack of legal recognition of the second parent in a same-sex relationship may threaten the parent-child relationship after the dissolution of the parent’s relationship.