Gallup Poll Shows Positive Trends for LGBT Families

can you buy neurontin over counter First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage. At least that’s how I learned the nursery rhyme in elementary school. It hasn’t turned out quite that way, for us, but then I was never in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g-ing, either.

In our family, first came love, then came all the moving boxes, then came two babies, then came adoption and we’re still not married. And given a recent poll by Gallup, it appears that we are doing all of this in order of popularity. For the average American, the idea of gay marriage and gay parents adopting children are at an all-time high. Check it out. It’s on the graph.

Sixty-three percent of people believe that same-sex couples should have the legal right to adopt a child and 55% agree that same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid. Only in the last three years have the majority of Americans said “yes” to both. And I’m going to assume that if Gallup had asked the question: do you support love? Everyone would have said “yes.”

It appears that adoption and marriage are traveling together on this journey. In Colorado where I live, we have  second parent adoption law, which we have happily taken advantage of twice and a civil union law, which doesn’t quite make the grade, so we’ll be going out of state this year to tie the knot. Sadly, there are nine states in the U.S. that essentially or overtly outlaw adoption of children by gay parents, so we still have work to do.

These findings are from Gallup’s “Values and Beliefs survey,” and Gallup has been asking slight variations on the same questions for more than 20 years. Not surprisingly, there are wider gaps in the results if the data is further dissected according to political party. Just 51% of Republicans support the adoption of children by gay parents, while 80% of Democrats support the idea. Gay adoption gets 61% support from Independents. And while every age group is now in favor of adoption by gay parents, the percentage of people who said “yes” is 77% in respondents ages 18 to 29 and only 52% for respondents ages 65 and older. Bottom line, my best friend’s dad from high school still probably isn’t with us.

I’m really glad to see the line moving up and to the right. I hope it stays this way. Actually, I hope it gains some momentum. When does something become a tipping point, again? Because we have waited long enough and so have many children.