Marriage inequality not only harms gay and lesbian Americans, it affects their children.

From the basic ability to simply say “my parents are married” to a whole host of rights and protections, children benefit when their parents are able to legally wed.

After hearing expert trial testimony and evidence presented by AFER’s legal team led by distinguished co-counsel Ted Olson and David Boies, the Federal District Court in the Perry case made the following finding of fact:

56. The children of same-sex couples benefit when their parents can marry.

Over 100,000 gay and lesbian couples across the country are raising children, according to an analysis of the 2010 Census of UCLA’s Williams Institute.

For couples like Shannan and Monica in Oregon, who are navigating the adoption process for four of their nieces and nephews in need, to Sue and Melissa in Florida, whose daughter’s greatest fear was going into foster care if anything happened to her birth mom,  the freedom to marry is about more than saying “I Do,” it’s about making sure that the children of gay and lesbian parents are no longer harmed by discriminatory laws like Prop. 8.

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