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.