When disability and homoparenting meet: the adoption of children with disability by same sex couples

• Published in: Ciência & saude coletiva Vol. 29; no. 4; p. e19772023
• Main Authors: Dias, Francine de Souza, Moreira, Martha Cristina Nunes, Santos, Raul de Paiva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Portuguese; English
• Published: Brazil 01.04.2024
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adoption; Child; Disabled Children; Female; Feminism; Homophobia - psychology; Human Rights; Humans; Male; Sexual and Gender Minorities - psychology
• ISSN: 1678-4561
• DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232024294.19772023

The present theoretical essay is based on six reports concerning same-sex couples and gay and lesbian people in order to interconnect homoparenting and the adoption of children with disabilities, through the lenses of human and social sciences in public health. The reports were interpreted in light of studies on same-sex adoption and the adoption of children with disabilities. Feminist approaches related to care and disability were also included in the interpretative perspective, operating as expressive webs of grammars of ableism. It was found that media approaches endorse the right to family formation and the adoption of children with disabilities by homoparental families, but with little critical depth on the category of disability and without highlighting support for the adoption of all adoptee profiles. Moreover, the intersections between homophobia and ableism increase discriminatory and oppressive logics, with the union of social groups considered to be "undesirable" representing a strategy of governmentality that reveals the complexity of grammars of ableism, applied to the sexual and reproductive rights of LGBTQIA+ adopters and to the fundamental rights of children and adolescents with disabilities who are available for adoption.