One hundred and thirty million dollars: That’s what banning adoptions by gay and lesbian couples will cost the the US foster care system. Per year. The Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School released the results of a study today on gay and lesbian adoptive parents. Using census data, the Williams Institute found that not only can gays and lesbians be good parents, not only are same-sex couples already adopting and parenting children, but same-sex couples often possess the very traits that state agencies look for when they’re recruiting foster parents:

Same-sex couples raising adopted children are older, more educated, and have more economic resources than other adoptive parents.

Another interesting finding: While half of gay men say they want to be parents, only 41% of lesbians do.

Why will it costs the states money if they ban adoptions by same-sex couples? Because there are already half a million children in foster care right now, and 100,000 children waiting to be adopted. Gays and lesbians are often willing to adopt children that same-sex couples are not: older children, infants with HIV, children with drug and alcohol exposure. Remove same-sex couples from the pool of potential adoptive parents and more children will remain in foster care longer. Some will remain in foster care forever.

Some states already ban gays and lesbians from fostering or adopting children: Florida, Mississippi and Utah. Florida, famously, forbids adoption by same-sex couples but allows same-sex couples to serve as foster parents.

According to Mother Jones, eleven states—California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Vermont—and Washington D.C. forbid agencies from using sexual orientation as a basis to prevent adoptions or turn away potential foster parents.

Hello, Ed Murray and Jamie Pederson? Why isn’t Washington state on this list?