Brittney Griner/Instagram (photo publicly released by Brittney and Cherelle Griner via CBS Mornings). Image source.
The Williams Institute’s analysis of 2010 Census data counted more than 54,000 African-American same-sex couples in the United States, and about 34 percent of them were raising children. Fifty-eight percent of those couples were female. The data describes several kinds of family, not one.
Children who came first
In data reported by Bianca Wilson and Lauren Bouton in 2024 and summarized by Family Equality, 78 percent of LGBTQ adults who are parents became parents through a current or previous different-sex relationship. Audre Lorde had her two children, Elizabeth and Jonathan, during her 1960s marriage to Edwin Rollins. She divorced in 1970 and became publicly known as a lesbian writer afterward.
Partners’ children and kinship care
Williams Institute pathway data, summarized by Family Equality, found that 20 percent of LGBTQ adults became parents through the child of a partner or spouse. The Census Bureau’s count of children in same-sex couple households includes stepchildren, so blended families sit inside the headline numbers. Another 5 percent of LGBTQ parents took in children through kinship care or legal guardianship. These national percentages cover LGBTQ parents broadly; they do not give Black lesbian-specific pathway rates.
Fostering and adoption
Six percent of LGBTQ adults became parents through adoption. A Williams Institute analysis cited by Family Equality in 2025 found that married same-sex couples with children were about eight times more likely than married different-sex couples to be raising a fostered or adopted child. Foster-care eligibility and licensing requirements depend on the jurisdiction. These figures do not establish which routes are financially accessible to Black lesbian families.
Survey pathways and public family announcements
Nine percent of LGBTQ adults became parents through donor insemination, and 1 percent through surrogacy. Wanda Sykes married Alex Niedbalski in October 2008 and came out publicly the following month. Alex Sykes gave birth to their twins, Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude, on April 27, 2009. Brittney Griner and her wife, Cherelle Griner, announced a pregnancy in April 2024, and Cherelle gave birth to their son, Bash, on July 8, 2024. Griner told CBS Sports that week that everything she thought mattered went out the window when she saw him. Public birth announcements do not, by themselves, establish a family’s conception method.
What money allows
The same Census analysis found that African-American same-sex couples raising children had a median household income of $47,300, about $16,000 less than comparable different-sex couples at $63,020. Female African-American same-sex couples overall reported a median of $51,000, compared with $72,000 for male couples. Clinic pregnancies, private adoption, and surrogacy require money before a child arrives. These income figures do not establish which parenting routes Black lesbian families take.
