Gay parents are facing discrimination because of their sexual orientation. Twenty-two states currently allow single gays to adopt and 21 states currently allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt in the U.S. (Mallon, 2007, p. 6). The ability of gay couples to rear a child should not be denied only because they are gay. Homosexuals may be looked down upon by society, but they still are humans and have morals. These morals they possess, may influence a child more than those morals taught to a child with heterosexual parents. All over the world, children suffer in families consisting of alcoholics, drug abusers, and sexual abusers (Powell, 2007, p.1). It is not possible that these environments are safer than what would be provided by homosexual …show more content…
Further, applicants for adoption should be accepted on the basis of an individual assessment of their capacity to understand and meet the needs of a particular available child at the point of adoption and in the future (Rosario, 2006, p.8). The United States is facing a critical shortage of adoptive and foster parents. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children in this country are without permanent homes. These children deteriorate for months, even years, within state foster care systems that lack qualified foster parents and are frequently faced with other problems.
When a gay couple sought to adopt a boy, who had leukemia, had been neglected by his biological parents, had lived in five foster homes, and whose adoption was favored by his legal representative, but the judge deemed it not in the interest of a seven-year-old male child to be placed for adoption into the home of a pair of adult male homosexual lovers'. Three years of searching for a qualified heterosexual couple failed. This and many other similar cases have denied children a family by ignoring many qualified homosexuals (Powell, 2007, p.3).
This being an age when people are supposedly more open-minded, why is it that gays are treated this way just because of their sexual orientation? Many Americans are still
The adoption process strives to serve the best interests of children should be the main focus in deciding all issues of adoption policies and practices. The adoption policy should always focus on finding the best parents for children who are in need of homes. This process helps someone join another’s family and should not be a defining characteristic or lifelong process. People who are adopted as infants grow up as healthy and productive as people who are raised in their own biological families. In November of each year, the President of the United States issues a proclamation to announce National Adoption Month. This is a time that is dedicated to raising awareness for the need of adoptive families and to encourage citizens to become involved in the lives of children and youth that are in the foster care system.
This article talks about the support of second parent adoption for gays everywhere. They support the idea that children with two capable adults no matter what gender are able and should be able to care for a child. Although they support this, the article does not show any sort of negativity toward the opposite side relating the issue. The site details the rights that the second parent should be guaranteed through an adoption. They also think that pediatricians and other professions dealing with children should get more familiar with learning about gays and the children they adopt. The authors are the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. The people in the committee have many different backgrounds and are advocates for children’s
Others who do not support same-sex adoption show concerns for the well-being of the child after being exposed to a homosexual lifestyle. In the article, Gay and Lesbian Adoptive Parents: Resources for Professional and Parents, it states that social workers are hesitant to allow same-sex adoptions because they wonder how the child will be raised and how the child will feel about themselves and the parents being homosexual. It is also stated in the article that conservative political and religious groups show how same-sex adoption have negative effects on children (“Gay and Lesbian Adoptive Parents”). There have been cases where the courts have taken in the fact that a child adopted by homosexual parents could be teased because of the parents and did what was the best interest for the child. Their argument was that in the long run the child’s self-esteem could become damaged because of the bullying (“Gay and
Child welfare services and the ACLU would agree that thecircumstances remain ideal for the child because having homosexual parents poses nodisadvantage to children (ACLU 2).The gay community is becoming more and more prominent in American society. Whatwas once an extremely ³closeted´ life style, is integrating itself into our everyday lives. As morerights are granted to gay and lesbian people, the more normal they are going to seem to everyoneelse. I¶m confident that my future children will grow up accepting homosexuality and that astime goes on, so will the rest of the country. So if the gay community is going to become sosignificant in our lives, shouldn¶t we grant them equal rights? If we can accept gays and lesbiansas people, partners, workers, and friends, why can¶t we accept them as good parents? When youlook at it logically, the exclusion of homosexuals as adoptive parents just doesn¶t make sense.³Love makes a family, not biology or gender,´ says gay dad Robert Calhoun about hisexperience as an adoptive father. Calhoun and his partner Clay of Avondale Estates, Georgiahave adopted two children-- four-year-old daughter Rainey and eighteen-month-old son Jimmy.Calhoun adds, ³We¶re not moms, we¶re not heterosexual, and we¶re not biological parents, [but]we¶re totally equal and just as loving as female parents, straight parents, and biological parents.´(Gandossy 1 ) The Calhouns certainly seem capable of providing just as much love and
The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to
Good parenting is not influenced by sexual orientation, but by parents creating a loving and nurturing home. With increased inclusiveness, more children are now in homes with qualified parents over being in the state system. Adoptive parents are being discriminated on adopting children based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status and so more children are “aging out” of the foster care system. Children are aging out of foster care because the federal government is not allowing parents to adopt based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status and those children are going without having the loving and nurturing home that they need so the Every Child Deserves a Family Act should be put in place.
The House of Representatives believes homosexuals should be able to adopt. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) same-sex, or gay (for short) adoption is the adoption of children by LGBT parents, either individually, or as a couple…in many other countries, gay people may petition individually to adopt, while gay couple cannot. 1. www.ru.idebate.org/debatabase/.../house-believes-homosexuals-should-be-able-adopt
Homosexuality has been a sensitive subject in society for a long time, and in recent years, it has sparked both support and controversy in areas such as legalizing gay and lesbian marriage and various other matters that have arisen surrounding the movement towards equality of treatment and integration into society. One of these matters that has garnered attention is gay parenting. With some states now allowing same-sex marriage or unions, the next step being taken is starting a family. There has been wide speculation into sexual orientation and whether it has an impact on homosexuals and their abilities to be good parents. Because of this, many people have carried out detailed studies and research on this topic to determine whether this
1851, Massachusetts passed the first adoption law, yet it’s only recently that same sex adoption has become more common (The Adoption HIstory) . Over the past few years the LGBT community has been trying to fight the discrimination against being able to adopt. They struggle twice as hard to get legal custody rights then it would for heterosexual couples.
The laws in the United States regulating adoption policies are not clear, and when it comes to homosexual couples adopting children, the laws are even more complicated. A Washington Post poll conducted in March of 2013 found that 70 percent of adults under age 40 support gay marriage. Even though thirteen states in 2013 have legalized it, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that gay married couples cannot be denied federal benefits, gay couples trying to adopt children learn that both legal and cultural obstacles still occur. As legislatures and courts expand the legal definition of the American family, same-sex couples are beginning to feel more pressure. Many gay couples had accepted that they would never be accepted by society as loving parents and assumed they would never have children (Johnson 1).
The process of adoption can be a long tedious process that in the end may not be beneficial to the adopted child. Some children are unfortunate and have troubled childhoods or may be abused which can impact the emotional and cognitive development of the child. Trauma during childhood is abhorrent because the child is creating connections and mild to severe stress or abuse can significantly alter the development of the child which can lead to problems in adulthood. Children are the future and should have a healthy childhood to help them prosper in adulthood. The adoption process should be simplified, while looking out for the best interest of the child as a whole.
Since the early 1900s, homosexual people have become increasingly popular and greatly resisted. People that are homosexual face barriers placed upon them by the political system and society. Due to these challenges, homosexuals fought to have the same marital and parental rights as heterosexual people. Same-sex adoption is not prohibited in most states in the United States of America and many places worldwide. Family is not determined solely on blood relations and should be legalized in all parts of the world; because homosexual parents are just as good as heterosexual parents, if not better, and can provide an enriching second chance for many children waiting to be adopted.
Letting gay and lesbian couples adopt a child contains both pros and cons. Most states ban same sex- couples from adopting, yet in 1996 the state of New York same-sex couple could then adopt. In 1996, New York being one of the only states that allowed it. Following the lifting of same sex adoption ban in New York, the Mississippi Governor realized that what he signed fifteen years ago did not remain true anymore. Governor, Ronnie Musgrove, said,” As I grow older, I came to understand that a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t pertain absolutely nothing to do with their ability to become a good parent.” Ronnie stood against same sex adoption fifteen years ago, but as he’s watched adoption rates throughout the past fifteen years he now changed his mind. In the same way, in Mississippi, twenty-nine percent of same-sex couples are raising a child that remains younger than eighteen. With that said, Mississippi holds the highest rate of same-sex couples with a child in the nation. On the contrary, not only are children who live in orphanages at a disadvantage of having two parents, but the children who their actual parents have divorced or one of them passed away (Lewin A.9). If every state allowed same-sex couples to adopt there would remain a decrease in child who spends their lives in orphanages. Some people think that a child cannot have two parents of the same sex. Like I
Nowadays, the question of gay marriage is one of the most heated and controversial. Over the years, same-sex couples are fighting for the legal recognition for their marriages and their right as parents. Parenthood is one of the most valuable experiences in a human life. After finding a partner, it is natural for people to want to raise children. Homosexual parent are the same in ability and commitment to raised healthy children. It would be a big step for improvement in our society to provide necessary support and rights for same-sex couples and their children.
When it comes to gay and lesbian people fighting for the right to adopt children in the United States, this task becomes one of the most difficult feats to accomplish. The difficulties that lesbians and gay people must deal with are religions and states that discriminate on the right for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) to adopt children. The problem when it involves religion is that there are groups of people that strongly believe that a child should be raised by a man and woman and not by a gay or lesbian couple. adding to the fact that some states allow Christian adoption agencies to have the authority to discriminate homosexuals from adopting; for example, when Texas passed the bill “Freedom to Serve Children Act,” allowing discrimination against same-sex adoptions on May 08, 2017(Lang). The right for a person to adopt should be allowed to anyone above the age of eighteen. If that individual does not have a record that could endanger a child than he or she should have the right to adopt a child without having religious ideals interfering. Other issues that LGBT face are the financial burdens to become a second parent to an adopted child or significant other’s child. These are some issues that need to be improved for the LGBT’s rights to become parents.