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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2008)
KJUStOUt JUNE 13, 2008 northwest TheJaneGarciaTeam.com Just Being Parents Same-sex couples find options in adoption and foster parenting by Heather Cassell ince the ’90s, visibility has been given to S Country living Only 30 Minutes from Portland Scappoose/St. Helens/Warren/Rainier/N.Portland jane Garcia, Principal Broker, GRI, ABR Direct 503-396-1016 Office 503-543-1323 janegarciaf»johnlscott.com Jennifer Pugsley, Broker, ABR, GRI ROSE CITY VETERINARY HOSPITAL listing Coordinator for Jane Garcia 503-313-8130 jcnnifcrpugsleyrjohnlscott.com 3ohti L. Scott it f aTVt f X t T ~ Mid-Century Modern Furniture • Housewares & Lighting Vintage Clothing 4722 SE Hawthorne Blvd. • 503-230-2620 www.hawlhornevinlagepdx.com Open 7 days/weelc 11-6 Extended Spring/Summer Hours: Friday 12-7 HÄWTH0RNE VINTAGE the gay community’s slice of the Ameri can dream—the lavender house with two kids strapped into the eco-friendly SUV, headed on the queer family vaca tion package. “I’ve been extremely impressed by the caliber of parenting I see from our gay and lesbian cli ents,” said Shari Levine, executive director of Open Adoption & Family Services in Portland. Approximately 40 percent of the organiza tion’s prospective parents are gay or lesbian, said Levine, and Open Adoption & Family Services allows an open relationship between adopted children and both their birth and adoptive par ents. Levine added that both hetero and same-sex couples can expect a 10- to 11-month adoption period through her agency. Many same-sex parents don’t view themselves as different from other parents, but others specu late that gay parents may raise their children with a greater awareness of diversity. “Being a gay parent hasn’t been defined as be ing gay, but as a parent,” said Tyler Silver, who has two children with his partner of five years, Joel Schudde. Carrie Adamson-John added, “I think that we would parent the same if we were straight...sexu ality is a separate issue from parenting.” She is raising 2-year-old Dakotah with her partner, Sha- non. “If you have a child and they are small, you can be encouraging, nurturing and respectful of their spirit no matter what. We parent him with respect and love.” This is a reoccurring theme among same-sex parents, and none seemed concerned about their children having problems at school because they have same-sex parents. Trish and Jan Calvin’s voices resonate with pride when they talk about their oldest daughter, Sarah, not being afraid to stand up to other kids when she gets grief for having gay parents. The parents said that Sarah sometimes gets tired of ex plaining her unique family to other kids but that she typically doesn’t have any problem talking about her two moms and brings books such as And Tango Makes Three and Heather Has Two Mom mies to school for the teacher to read to the class. According to the Williams Institute—a sexual minority think tank at University of California, Los Angeles—more than half of gay men and 41 percent of lesbians want to have a child. The re search organization published those statistics in Adoption & Foster Care by Lesbians & Gay Men in March 2007. According to the report, an estimated 65,500 adopted children live with a gay or lesbian parents and 2 million gay. and lesbian people are inter ested in adopting. The institute estimated that of 23,901 adoptions in Oregon, 1,232 are by gay and lesbian parents. It also estimated that 14,100 fos ter children are living with gay or lesbian parents nationwide, including about 250 in Oregon. Fertility experts are noticing a rise in sexual minorities looking at reproductive technologies as an option in their family planning. Oregon Reproductive Medicine—formerly the Portland Center for Reproductive Medi cine—has been helping gay couples and individu als with their reproductive needs for many years, “not just lately because it’s become in vogue,” said Jonathan Kipp, a spokesman for the center. Kipp, a gay man, said he has noticed an increase in queer clients at the center from as far away as France. “There is a wide range of options for the gay community now to be able to create their fami lies,” said Stuart Miller, co-founder and chief executive officer of Growing Generations. He es timated the agency has seen a 20 percent increase in mostly gay male clients with a few lesbian cli ents annually. The trend hasn’t escaped the American Fer tility Association, a New York-based reproduc tive technologies organization, either. For the third consecutive year, the organization hosted H ollywood A ntiques PORTLAND'S PREMIER ANTIQUE MALL » E$T 1982 ame cue u dea/vu $ /tern itenul DON VALERIO, MD INTERNAL MEDICINE / PRIMARY CARE FANNO CF1EEK CLINIC 2400 SW VERMONT 503-452-0915 1969 NE 42nd Ave. 1 block north of Sandy • 2 blocks from Max Always Accepting Quality Consignments 503-288-1051 hollywoodantique@comcast.net www.hollywood-antiques.com
