ABSTRACT
In composing their anti-gay rhetoric in terms of child protection, conservatives have inaccurately grouped children into a monolithic category, often excluding the real interests of two specific classes of children: children of sexual minority parents and minors who are themselves lesbian, gay, transgendered, or bisexual. This chapter considers the children to whom people are biologically related, the children people would adopt, and the children with whom people live. It addresses the minors who are presently sexual minorities or who may be in the future. In both cases, people must ensure that their children are not damaged by the law. The established standard in custody disputes between parents, the "best interest of the child" test, has devolved into several different approaches regarding parental sexuality. Depriving a child of the continued care of his or her sexual minority parent, based on parental sexuality, harms children, despite any court's findings that such a deprivation is in the "best interest of the child.".
