Adoption of Children by Same Sex Couples

[Elisa Keisha]

Adoption of Children by Same Sex Couples

Summary: Should gay couples be given the same legal rights as heterosexuals in adopting children?

Author: Eliot Jones (USA)
Eliot Jones is a freelance communications consultant.

Created: Friday, October 27, 2000
Last Modified: Friday, October 27, 2000



Context

At present, the world and individual countries are as divided with regard to adoption as to other area of gay rights. As of 2000, four states in the USA (Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and Utah) have specifically outlawed gay adoption, as have Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland) that show an otherwise lenient attitude to same-sex relationships. By contrast, the National Adoption Week in the UK in October 2000 saw a drive to encourage gay couples to adopt, in order to find homes for the thousands of children seeking parents.

CONS

The traditional nuclear family is still an ideal that should be clung to. Where its breakdown is inevitable, a close substitute, with maternal and paternal influences, is the only alternative. Evolution and nature has shown that the natural development of the young is aided by both these influences. Research in the US (Univ. of Illinois Law Review, 1997) finds that children raised in homosexual househoulds are significantly more likely to be gay themselves.

While exceptions occur, the norm in nature is that offspring are nurtured by mother and father. To legally allow adoption by gay couples is to encourage what is an unnatural upbringing.

A child’s primary role models are his or her parents. Bringing a heterosexual child up in a gay household gives them a distorted view of a minority sexuality, just as a girl brought up by two men would fail to benefit from a feminine influence.

While the law should not penalise gay relationships, it also exists to encourage the nuclear family as the ideal for child-raising. Just as married couples receive tax benefits and unmarried mothers may suffer cuts in welfare, legal prohibition of adoption by gays is a natural step towards this ideal.

Homophobic language and behaviour is still common in society. Placing a child too young to have an opinion of their own in the care of a gay couple exposes them to this prejudice, and subjects them to ridicule or violence. Whatever ideal we might have, the psychological and physical welfare of the child must come first.



PROS

Society is changing, and the traditional idea of the nuclear family with married mother and father is no longer the only acceptable alternative. The reason that many countries are beginning to award legal rights to gay couples is because the stability of such relationships is now recognised. There is no reason, therefore, why such couples cannot provide a stable and loving upbringing for children.

Nature has shown in many species that, when one or both parents die, an uncle or aunt frequently takes on the child-rearing role.

Some babies are born with a predisposition to homosexuality (both human and in other races), and their upbringing will not be affect their sexuality. Attempting to suppress this genetic predisposition has resulted in great misery for many people. Rather, we should accept this and look to embrace all gay people fully – which must include celebrating gay role models, especially as responsible parents

In many cases, children are currently being responsibly reared by gay couples, where one of the partners is a biological parent. Allowing adoption by the other merely confers legal rights on an already successful, if informal, family model.

The homophobia in some sections of society is wrong, and must be fought however possible. Couples from ethnic minorities are not barred from adoption even in racist areas. Only through the full inclusion of gays in society and all its institutions can we hope to overcome prejudice.

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http://www.debatabase.org/details_print.asp?topicID=51

[IfasehunReincarnated]

I am profoundly against this. I will support gay adoption rights when they start letting black people adopt white babies from bosnia and american boothill country. lol i wanna adopt me a white boy and dress him up in dishikis everyday and make he say the UNIA pledge everyday before school.

homophobia is a term created to bring shame upon people that stay true to their own cultural and societal upbringing. no me. i am an afrikan. i aint afraid, i just dont approve. period.

[Elisa Keisha]

My parents thought they couldnt give birth to a child before I was born... so they were thinkin about adoptin... but it took too much time n money.... we all have seen how this type of things usually work.. u have to let them into ur personal life, into ur home... so they can say if u are nice, rich and balanced enuf to take care of a child.... I dont know how it works for blacks in the USA... but I think they just should let more children to be adopted, point blank... first by "regular" ppl, later lesbians, gays and farmers (in that order)

[Learn06]

you have a nice signature Elisa.

[Elisa Keisha]

thank u

[Learn06]

You Are Welcome.