Finding Family

In this short 2007 documentary, filmmaker John Ireland examines the patchwork laws concerning LGBTQ adoption, and the ways in which the states were anything but united in what makes a family.

Presenting a comprehensive overview of gay adoption rights state-by-state, Finding Family features social workers from across the country, a researcher with the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, gay adoptive parents, and the grown son of two lesbians.

Although a number of organizations gathered data on this topic over time, prior to this film, there was no existing coherent document or profile bringing the story together into a national overview. This documentary short stands as a moment of time and snapshot of the state of gay adoption in the U.S. in the mid-aughts.