I've actually met adults both gay and straight whol were street kids in the 1970's taken in by gay couples and given a chance to finish school, all outside of child protective services. Of course noiw that I think about it, they were all also from Long Beach , CA. So, perhaps it was just a regional thing. I think mo elikely it was out of a left over no601's hippie sentiment of people should just take care of one another.

@snytiger6 that is great! Times are different. Well, and places. I am a counselor, deep in the Bible Belt. I have met multiple people put through the legal wringer, accused of indecency with children, for no other reason than that some homophobe lied about them and pressed charges with no tangible evidence. The accused get railroaded here, pressured to plead "no contest" to false charges under the threat of harsh judges who like to tout their 100% conviction rates(yes, actually %100 in St. Tammany Parish; how is that for a rigged system?) against people accused of sexual offenses. It doesn't even seem to matter that the children are willing to testify on behalf of the accused. They generally are not allowed to. Their testomony is also regarded here as easily coached and manipulated. The entire system stinks. Even though there really is much more tolerance, acceptance, even sympathy for lgbtq+ people now, we still have shitty legal protection in the South.

@MikeInBatonRouge That is in part why I never wanted to live in (or even visit) the South/Bible Belt. I think I'd only (willingly) move to places with a more liberal local/micro culture. Thus when left Los Angeles I moved to the Portland/Vancouver area.

@snytiger6 now you are just making me sad. I am only in the South because of my child's mother. Can't co-parent from thousands of miles away. I am not that rich. And now I have a career and 15 years to go to both pay off my mortgage and collect social security. I have dreams of relocating when I retire, either to wherever my son has moved to or my late mother's hometown, Eugene OR. I grew up in Olympia and spent middle and high school on the Olympic penninsula. I sure do miss the Pacific Northwest. Hard to know what my sitiation will be in 15 years. But I would like to get out of this Armpit of America. We score near the bottom of nearly every quality of life measure in various 50 states surveys. Yep, pretty impressive.