Bianca D.M. Wilson

Parents represent an important demographic and social experience within the U.S. across subpopulations, including among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ) people. Yet, most research on parenting benefits and challenges, as well as demographic characteristics of parents, remains focused on cisgender heterosexual individuals. This report analyzes multiple data sources to provide a current sociodemographic portrait of LGBTQ parents in the United States. Throughout this summary and report, we use the term parent to describe adults who identify as the biological, adoptive, step, or foster parent of a child under the age of 18 who is living in the same household. We also use LGBTQ as an umbrella term that is inclusive of the respondents in multiple data sources, including LGBT-identified people responding to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) and General Social Survey (GSS), respondents who reported being in same-sex couples in the American Community Survey (ACS), and the LGBTQ+ respondents who participated in the NIH-funded Generations and TransPop studies.

Main Findings

• 18% (2.57 million) of LGBTQ adults are parenting children.
  • 26% of cisgender women and 20% of transgender men, compared with 8% of cisgender men and 12% of transgender women, report being parents.
  • 35% (1.24 million) of married LGBTQ adults are parenting children.
    • 14% (167,000) of same-sex couples are parenting children.
    • 18% (119,000) of married same-sex couples are parenting children.
• Approximately 5 million children are being raised by an LGBTQ parent.
  • Two million children live in an LGBTQ single-parent household.
  • Almost 300,000 children are being raised by parents in same-sex couples.
• In terms of being a parent at some point in their lifetime (e.g., children may currently live elsewhere or may now be adults), 32% of LGB and 19% of transgender adults report ever having a child.

Demographic Characteristics of LGBTQ Parents

• Among LGBTQ parents, cisgender bisexual women, lesbian women, and bisexual men comprise the largest subgroups of parents, followed by cisgender gay men and transgender men.
  • Cisgender women: 75%
    • Bisexual women: 61%
    • Lesbian women: 14%
  • Cisgender men: 16%
    • Bisexual men: 11%
    • Gay men: 5%
  • Transgender people: 9%
    • Transgender men: 4.3%
    • Transgender women: 2.2%
    • Transgender GNC: 2.4%

• Regardless of age, LGBTQ people are less likely to be parenting children in their household than non-LGBTQ people (18% vs. 28%).
• However, cisgender bisexual women are parenting at similar rates to straight cisgender women (approximately 30%).
• A higher percentage of Black LGBTQ adults are parents (23%) than White LGBTQ adults (17%).

Marriage and Relationship Status Among LGBTQ Parents

• There are differences in marital status among parents by sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • 49% of LGBTQ parents are married compared with 20% of LGBTQ non-parents and 71% of straight cisgender parents.
  • 23% of LGBTQ parents have never been married, and 12% are in an unmarried partnership, while 12% of straight cisgender parents have never married, and 6% are in unmarried partnerships.

• • LGBTQ parents have a similar rate of divorce, separation, or widowhood as straight cisgender women, with both groups having a higher rate than straight cisgender men.
  • When assessing relationship status among subgroups of LGBTQ parents, we find that the majority of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents are married or partnered.
  • While cisgender bisexual women make up about 60% of LGBTQ parents, and many of them are married or partnered, a large proportion of them are single parents (43%).
  • Likewise, 40% of lesbian parents are single mothers compared with 29% of straight women parents.
• There are differences in marital status among White parents and parents of color by sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • Among White adults, more LGBTQ parents are married than non-parents, but fewer are married compared to straight cisgender parents (60% vs. 22% and 78%).
  • People of color (POC) are less likely to be married across all parenting and SOGI groups compared to their White counterparts.
  • Among POC adults, more LGBTQ parents are married than non-parents, but fewer are married compared to straight cisgender parents (37% vs. 17% and 62%).

Economics Among LGBTQ Parents 

• LGBTQ parents are more likely to be living in poverty than non-parents and straight cisgender parents (33% vs. 21% and 21%).
• For most groups, fewer people who are married are living in poverty compared to other relationship categories, particularly compared to those who were never married.
  • One important exception to this finding is that marriage is not a significant factor in whether someone lives in poverty for Black and Latinx LGBTQ parents who are partnered or in same-sex couples.

Family Formation and Stressors

• Overall, 47% of partnered LGBTQ parents are in a same-gender or transgender-inclusive partnership; however, the majority of cisgender lesbian/gay parents are vs. 10% of cisgender bisexual/queer parents.
• 78% of LGBTQ parents became parents through current or previous sexual relationships, 20% through stepparenthood, and 6% through adoption.
• Among parenting households, same-sex couples adopt (21%), foster (4%), and have stepchildren (17%) at significantly higher rates than different-sex couples (3%, 0.4%, 6%).
  • Notably among parents, 24% of married same-sex couples have adopted a child versus 3% of married different-sex couples.
• Approximately 35,000 same-sex couple parents have adopted children, and 6,000 are fostering children. The majority of these couples are married.
• Among all LGBTQ parents, approximately 57,000 are fostering children (1.4%). Less than half of these parents are married.
• Approximately 30% of LGBQ parents are not legally recognized or are unsure about their legal status as the parent/guardian of at least one child.
• 23% of LGBQ adults said it was very important to them to have children in the future, and 22% thought it was very likely they would. LBQ cisgender women were three times more likely to think this than GBQ cisgender men.

This report on LGBTQ parenting rates and sociodemographic characteristics illustrates that a significant proportion of LGBTQ adults are parents, and many of these parents are experiencing economic instability. For context, prior research has identified how many LGBT adults had minors in the household, yielding higher percentages than the percentages of LGBTQ parents we have identified in this report. However, we now know that a significant proportion of those minors were siblings, grandchildren, or unrelated. As such, our estimates of how many LGBTQ people identify as parents may look slightly smaller than previous estimates due to more precise data becoming available. It also appears that the percentage of same-sex couples who are parents is slightly lower now than in prior estimates, using similar ways of defining parenthood. It is also possible that there are fewer LGBTQ people raising children than 10 years ago due to opportunities to live outside of heteronormative expectations of marriage and family.

Policies aiming to improve the lives of LGBTQ communities should focus on issues specific to LGBTQ parents, such as concerns around parental rights and access to reproductive services, as well as issues generally important to all parents, such as access to parenting support and economic justice. While the findings related to characteristics and experiences among parents are quite similar to patterns observed over a decade ago, which included people who were parents and non-parents to the children in the household,1 this report focuses only on those who identify as parents. Reporting on those who identify as having a parental relationship allows for a more accurate estimate of the population size of LGBTQ parents, and it highlights those with the most need in relation to policies impacting children and families. Yet, future research is needed that explores the nature of “non-parent” relationships to children in the household as they may represent parental figures despite non-parental labels, or they may reflect various forms of kin and queer chosen family structures. Further, LGBTQ people living with and involved in the care of young children to whom they are not formally parents may experience a range of positive social and mental health benefits, as well as economic and/or social challenges.