LGBTQ+ Adoption

If you are LGBTQ+ and considering adoption as a route to grow your family, you will receive a warm welcome from the ARC Adoption North East team. 

We have many years of experience in guiding adopters through the process to parenthood and providing a wide range of ongoing support.

The adoption process is the same for all prospective adopters regardless of gender, relationship status or sexual orientation, and it would be our pleasure to help you get started.

It may interest you to know that 1 in 4 of the families who started the adoption process with ARC last year (2023) were in same-sex relationships or identified as LGBTQ+.

Kevin and his husband adopted with ARC's help:

“As a same sex Cis Male couple, not yet married at the time, we had lots of nerves around adoption in terms of being welcomed and treat equally, in our rights to adopting as being part of the LGBTQ+ community. These preservations were immediately squashed when ARC welcomed us from the start and supported, guided and respected us equally, irrespective of our sexuality. We can’t begin to thank all of the amazing team at ARC for everything they did for us. I don’t think they appreciate how much it means to be given this opportunity, they’ve honestly changed our lives for the better.

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During the whole adoption process we were never made to feel uncomfortable for being gay or have it highlighted to be in 'our favour’, we genuinely were treated the same as everyone else and this is why I will always recommend ARC to my friends and family in the LGBTQ+ community.”

You can also read about the experiences of other LGBTQ+ adopters that we have supported into parenthood here. 

Jamie and Tom talk about becoming parents in this video from #YouCanAdopt.

New Family Social Membership

ARC Adoption North East is proud to be a member of New Family Social, and adopters who choose to adopt through ARC Adoption, also benefit from free membership.

New Family Social is the only national LGBT+ adoption and fostering charity in the UK. It provides support, improves the treatment of LGBT+ people in the adoption and fostering process, encourages inclusion and works directly with its members and agencies to find more new families for children in care.

New Family Social also hosts a podcast, Adoption, Fostering & Tea: The New Family Social Podcast which gives listeners the chance to hear discussions from those who have chosen to build their families via Adoption or Fostering.

You can also find about the online, social and peer support available to adopters at ARC Adoption North East.

If you would like to have a friendly discussion with us about adoption, click Adoption enquiry and a member of the ARC Adoption team will contact you as soon as possible.