Same-sex couples face many of the same marriage-ending issues that opposite-sex couples face, from infidelity to financial stress to illness and disease. When these marriages break up, they need to consider their child custody rights if they were raising children together during the marriage.
That’s the reality for many of these couples. Here are a few quick facts to paint the picture from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles:
- Of all married same-sex couples in the United States, roughly 114,000 have started families and begun raising children.
- That is out of around 357,000 married same-sex couples, illustrating the rate at which they’re interested in becoming parents.
- Female same-sex couples are more likely to raise children than male same-sex couples, at 24% vs. 8%.
- Adoption is massively more popular with same-sex couples (21%) than it is with opposite-sex couples (3%).
What this means is that same-sex couples have yet one more thing in common with their opposite-sex counterparts: They need to consider how to keep raising these children after divorce. In some cases, only one person will actually be the biological mother to the child; in other cases, neither parent will be biologically related at all. What challenges and questions does this create? How do these cases differ from the norm? In what ways are they more complex? Above all else, what can couples do to make sure they put the children’s best interests first?
These are all important questions to ask as you look into your rights and legal options. With proper planning, a divorce can be successful for all parties involved, including the children.
