In re: Gill - About the American College of Pediatricians

When the American Academy of Pediatrics passed its policy statement supporting second-parent adoptions by lesbian and gay parents in 2002, a fringe group of approximately 60 of the AAP’s more than 60,000 members formed the “American College of Pediatricians.”1 This group has been described by one of its charter members as a “Judeo-Christian, traditional-values organization,” that is open to pediatric medical professionals of all religions “who hold to [the ACP’s] core beliefs,” which are that “life begins at conception, and that the traditional family unit, headed by an opposite-sex couple, poses far fewer risk factors in the adoption and raising of children.”2 This group issued a position statement in January 2004 supporting the “age-old prohibition on homosexual parenting, whether by adoption, foster care, or by reproductive manipulation.”3

1. Pamela P. Wong, “New Pediatricians Group Blasts AAP Endorsement of ‘Gay’ Parenting,” Concerned Women for America, 2003, http://www.cultureandfamily.org/articledisplay.asp?id=4053&department=CFI&categoryid=cfreport (December 19, 2005). See also “Charter Member Physicians,” American College of Pediatricians, 2004, http://www.acpeds.org/?CONTEXT=art&cat=10002&art=25&BISKIT=2344774610 (19 December 2005)

2. Roy Waller and Linda Nicolosi, “Pediatricians’ Groups Differ on Attitudes Toward Homosexual Parenting,” National Association of Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, (September 2004), http://www.narth.com/docs/differ.html (2 December 2005).

3. American College of Pediatricians, “Homosexual Parenting: Is It Time for Change?”, 2004 http://www.acpeds.org/?CONTEXT=art&cat=10005&art=187&BISKIT=2684987796 (19 December 2005)