A Montreal ‘throuple’ of three homosexual men has adopted a three-year-old girl through Quebec’s child protection services and now seeks recognition as three legal parents. This push stands upon a 2025 Quebec Superior Court ruling ordering the Civil Code to be changed to allow more than two legal parents.
In the judge’s words, limiting filiation to two parents “sends the message to multi-parent families and to society in general that only so-called ‘normal’ families, with a maximum of two parents, represent valid family structures worthy of legal recognition”.
This matters in the UK because policy about what counts as ‘family’ shapes practice in adoption and surrogacy. And we’re moving in the same direction.
England’s latest official figures show that 2,980 children were adopted from care in 2023–24, with 20% placed with same-sex couples. Sector guidance explicitly aims to “increase the number of LGBTQ+ adopters” through targeted recruitment and practice standards. Meanwhile, Law Commission proposals on surrogacy would create “a new pathway to legal parenthood” so intended parents become the legal parents from birth.
Outcomes for children cry out against this. The strongest results still show the gold standard is being raised by one’s married mum and dad.
Professor D Paul Sullins, using large representative US data, has reported that at age 28 those raised by same-sex parents were “at over twice the risk of depression… as persons raised by man-woman parents”. His broader work points to higher risks for emotional and developmental problems compared with married, joint-biological parents.
Children’s rights advocate Katy Faust presses the principle that marriage policy should prioritise a child’s right to both mother and father, not adult fulfilment.
We know not every child can be raised by his or her married mum and dad. Many single adopters, kinship carers and foster carers do heroic work. The point here is different. Social services, adoption agencies and surrogacy brokers should not be encouraged to prioritise family forms that, on average, deliver poorer outcomes.
Once same-sex marriage policy says mothers or fathers are optional in marriage, children become assignable to any adult arrangement. The notions of biological parents and monogamy lose meaning. Multi-parent recognition is then framed as the next “inclusive” step. Quebec shows how quickly law follows that logic.
C4M calls for an immediate and constructive change of direction for the UK:
- Re-centre child welfare practice on the child’s right, wherever possible, to be raised by his or her own married mother and father, and measure outcomes accordingly.
- Ensure assessments do not penalise carers for orthodox marriage beliefs while upholding rigorous safeguarding for every child.
- Approach surrogacy reform with strict best-interests tests that avoid normalising parent-absent arrangements, and resist any intentional drift toward multi-parent models.
- Keep public signals clear – marriage between one man and one woman is the most reliable context for children to thrive in.
At C4M, we know real marriage still works. It anchors love to duty, gives children the belonging they crave, and builds communities that last. We must not let this go.