 and his husband John (left) adopted three children through PACT (Picture: Instagram @mrstuoakley) The number of children in care is now at its highest on record, but an increasing amount of LGBTQ+ couples are stepping up to take in some of the country's most vulnerable kids. Government statistics show that out of 2950 adoptions that took place in England last year, 540 were to same-sex couples. It's a 17.4% rise on 2021's figures; now, it's thought that 1/6 adoptions are to LGBTQ+ families. Stu Oakley, 38, is the author of The Queer Parent. He adopted three children over the course of two years. Here, he explains the process he and his 47-year-old husband John went through to start their growing family. 'The day we first met our children is a memory etched into my brain forever. I remember the nerves of walking up the doorsteps and their foster dad opening the door. Our daughter just ran up behind him, with the biggest smile on her face. She looked at me and yelled 'daddy!' because they'd been showing them videos and photos of us. It just melted my heart. We walked into the living room and my son, who was just a tiny baby, was gurgling on the mat. Everything felt right. I knew this was my family. We'd always seen adoption as the route we wanted to go down. Surrogacy is a wonderful thing but for us, it didn't feel right. We wanted to be on a level playing field, and with surrogacy, only one of us would genetically be the father. The couple decided adoption was the process they wanted to follow (Picture: Instagram – @mrstuoakley) It was when we moved house and had more space that we decided it was time to start a family. We saw an advert in a magazine for PACT – an adoption charity and family support provider. They had a history of working with LGBTQ+ couples, so we signed up for an information evening. They had a gay person there telling his story of adoption, and he made it sound really fair and thorough. We decided to sign up. We started with a){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
The number of children in care is now at its highest on record, but an increasing amount of LGBTQ+ couples are stepping up to take in some of the country’s most vulnerable kids.
Government statistics show that out of 2950 adoptions that took place in England last year, 540 were to same-sex couples. It’s a 17.4% rise on 2021’s figures; now, it’s thought that 1/6 adoptions are to LGBTQ+ families.
Stu Oakley, 38, is the author of The Queer Parent. He adopted three children over the course of two years.
Here, he explains the process he and his 47-year-old husband John went through to start their growing family.