Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gay/lesbian adoption controversy
If there are over two million LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people willing to adopt a child, why not give a child a permanent home? There are over 65,000 adopted children and 14,000 foster children in the U.S. that are being raised in homes headed by non-heterosexual individuals or couples (Evan B. 2011). To let same sex couples adopt has been a huge deal throughout the United States for the past years that some states even banned them from ever adopting. Many lesbian and gay couples have been denied the application to adopt due to agencies that have negative views towards the couple because of religion or other beliefs. Everyone no matter who they are have “equal rights” and those rights are disrespected daily when it comes to homosexuals adopting or even thinking of becoming a parent themselves. Even though it is said children need both a male and a female parent to psychologically develop properly, homosexual couples should have the ability to adopt because they are equally capable of raising a child as a heterosexual couple.
People say that a child needs both a male and a female figure in their life to psychologically develop properly but;
Scientific studies have shown that children who grow up in one or two-parent gay or lesbian households fare just as well emotionally and socially as children whose parents are heterosexual. Studies have shown that children are more influenced by their interactions with their parents, than by their sexual orientation. (Kathy Belge, 2014)
(Picture by: Children adopted by gay and lesbian couples, September 3rd, 2010)
A mother and a father figure will always give you love and affection while the mother teaches you morality, the father teaches you discipline. People see ho...
... middle of paper ...
...ian and Gay Parents in the United States. Retrieved May 14, 2014, from http://www.urban.org/publications/411437.html
JaeRan, K. (2013, March 5). Report on children adopted by gay and lesbian couples - Stability, Permanency and Adoption Blog. Report on children adopted by gay and lesbian couples - Stability, Permanency and Adoption Blog. Retrieved May 13, 2014, from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cascw/adoption/2013/03/report-on-children-adopted-by-gay-and-lesbian-couples.html
Do you think homosexual parents should be able to foster children?. (n.d.). The Premier Online Debate Website. Retrieved May 14, 2014, from http://www.debate.org/opinions/do-you-think-homosexual-parents-should-be-able-to-foster-children
LGBT Adoption Statistics. (n.d.). LGBT Adoption. Retrieved May 13, 2014, from http://www.lifelongadoptions.com/lgbt-adoption/lgbt-adoption-statistics
Second parent adoption is an important tool utilized by same-sex couples in an effort to protect their parental rights in states where same sex marriage is not recognized. Although gay and lesbian paren...
Perrin, Ellen C., and Benjamin S. Siegel. "Promoting the Well-Being of Children Whose Parents Are Gay or Lesbian." Pediatrics 131.4 (2013): 1374-383. PDF file.
In the stage of gender stability children are able to indicate that a gender remains the same throughout time and therefore, children start to realise that they will be male or female for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, their understanding of gender i...
Homosexual parents may or may not cause gender role confusion in young children. Critics love to comment on how homosexuals cause their children to be confused about gender roles, but as long as their parents explain and teach them how society expects a certain gender to behave, then the child should be fine. Times have changed, so the idea of women doing one thing, while men do the other is kind of going out of the window. As long as the child understands that each gender is different, and their bodies work differently, a child learning “gender rol...
In today’s society, it can be argued that the choice of being male or female is up to others more than you. A child’s appearance, beliefs and emotions are controlled until they have completely understood what they were “born to be.” In the article Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell- Ginet speaks out on how we are influenced to differentiate ourselves through gender. It starts with our parents, creating our appearances, names and behaviors and distinguishing them into a male or female thing. Eventually, we grow to continue this action on our own by watching our peers. From personal experience, a child cannot freely choose the gender that suits them best unless our society approves.
Same-sex relationships and same-sex adoption is extremely relevant today. Either on the news or newspaper articles we see same-sex couples file lawsuit against courts and adoption agencies for discriminating sexual preference. The “regular” same-sex couples along with the “Hollywood” same-sex couples are trying to earn acceptance for being LGBT. Lifelong adoption, an "A+" rating with the Better Business Bureau provides an aggressive nationwide advertising, marketing, and national outreach campaign, “estimated two million LGBT people are interested in adopting” (“LGBT Adoption”). In the state of California there is roughly “16,000 adopted children” living with same-sex parents/couples. (“LGBT Adoption”).
Whether a created family is from previous heterosexual relationships, artificial insemination, or adoption, it deserves the same legal rights heterosexual families enjoy. Full adoption rights needs to be legalized in all states to provide a stable family life for children because sexual orientation does not determine parenting skills, children placed with homosexual parents have better well-being than those in foster care, and there are thousands of children waiting for good homes. The argument sexual orientation interferes with ones parenting skills is common belief that Charlotte J. Patterson identifies as myth in her work, Lesbian and Gay Parents and their Children, suggesting the belief that “lesbians’ and gay men’s relationships with sexual partners leave little time for ongoing parent–child interactions.” In the Who is Mommy tonight? case study, how 18 lesbian adoptive parents, 49 lesbian parents who formed their families biologically, and 44 heterosexual adoptive parents experience and perceive their parenting role, how they respond when their children seek them or their partner for particular nurturing, and how the parents negotiate the cultural expectation of a primary caregiver (Ciano-Boyce & Shelley-Sireci, 2002) is looked at.
As issues that affect children enthuse intense interest and emotion it is unsurprising that transracial adoption; the joining together of racially or ethnically different parents and children in an adoptive family, is a subject that is fraught with controversy. Transracial adoption not only raises the question of the how much power should the state have to affect individual choices with respect to family life it also questions the level of state assistance given to families in trouble before removing parents from their parents. It also highlights issue of race within the context of the family with advocates seeing trans-racial adoption as a harbinger of hope, believing that if different races can love each other as a family then there is hope for the relationship between different races in society (Moe, 2007; Perry, 1996). Whereas, radical opponents claim that white society is racist and that transracial adoption is a hostile manifestation of white power and believe that ethnic minority communities should have the right to decide the fate of ethnic minority children (Hayes, 1995).
Adoption is a very important part of the American lifestyle. The welfare of children needs to be put in front of homophobia. There are an estimated 500,000 children in foster care nation wide, and 100,000 of these children are awaiting adoption. In 2013, only one child of every six available for adoption was actually adopted. (Sanchez, 13) Statistics like these show the true importance of adoption. People seem to prefer to have their own children biologically, but adoption should be taken into consideration, even if natural conception is possible.
Same-sex couples can become parents through means of former relationships, co-parenting, surrogacy, adoption, and donor insemination, although major legal discrimination continues to challenge this process for families. The difficulty faced by many of these couples to have children oftentimes results in even more nurturing environments. This variance in route to parenthood can make same-sex couples that are having children more motivated to be doing so. “Planned families reflect the desire of sexual minorities to have children outside of heteronormative circumstances” (Moore 2013:495). Non-heterosexual parents on average have stronger relationships with their children th...
It's 2015, same sex marriage is legalized in the U.S., yet not all adoption agencies allow homosexual couples to adopt. It is only allowed by law to have homosexuals in a joint adoption in 11 states. Adoption has been around since the 1920’s and has been a way to help orphaned children become a family. Not everyone is willing to adopt, whether it is because they don’t want a child, or they have children of their own, and it is not in their budget to adopt another. In the end, there is still a large number of orphaned children hoping and waiting for a chance to be loved and welcomed by a family.
There indicators of child developmental outcomes were categorized into parent and child relationship quality, children’s cognitive development, children’s gender role behavior, children’s gender identity, children’s sexual preference, and children’s social and emotional development. There analysis showed that children with same-sex parents fared equally to children raised by heterosexual parents when comparing developmental outcomes. Same-sex parents also reported a significantly better relationship with their children than heterosexual parents, which was measured by the parent or child perception of the quality of their relationship. This goes back to the argument that parent sexuality has no impact on the child but rather the relationship between the parent and the child has is the most impactful. In Crowl, Ahn and Baker (2008) meta-analysis study also found that the parent sexual orientation had no effect on gender identity, cognitive development, psychological adjustment, and sexual
...g and nurturing home, an ability that does not depend on whether a parent is gay or straight. The children of lesbian and gay parents grow up as happy, healthy, and well-adjusted as the children of heterosexual parents. If a person can love a child and can model themselves as a loving parent for the child, then they should be able to be a parent. It does not matter if you are gay, lesbian, or heterosexual. Gender nor sexuality has nothing to do with weather you are a good parent or not. Many homosexual people are great parents, same as many heterosexual people. Same-sex couples function like opposite-sex couples. Even if both parents are the same sex one can function like the father figure and one can function like the mother figure. Gays and lesbians deserve the right to raise a child because they are still humans who are equipped to handle the duties of parenting.
The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Report there were about 423,773 children in foster care in the United States only a couple of years ago (Watson). Each foster child in the system should have a chance at adoption so to deny gay couples the right to adopt is not only heartbreaking for both the child and the gay couple but also unconstitutional. A requirement of being a parent shouldn’t focus on a person’s sexual orientation; it’s not an aspect that should matter. The main things to look for when evaluating a person’s worth as a parent should be whether the person is caring, devoted, and stable. An example is Jon Campbell and Danny Stewart, found a recently-born baby on a subway and adopted the baby, thinking that it might be their only chance in adopting a child. Another example of how much gay couples value having children is shown by Bircher, a 44-year-old hair salon owner, when he said, "Our prisons are full of people who were in foster care, and those people were in, quote unquote, straight family homes, if I can provide a loving, stable home for my little boy, that 's the goal" (Watson). These articles show how much gay couples value having children and it shows that they could great parents, despite irrational arguments against them
They need a stable environment and supportive parents to help them get on their feet and reach their potential. With a shortage of adoptive parents for the Foster Care Program and no statistical evidence that the sexuality of a child’s parents affects his or her development, what reason is there not to have same-sex parents available to adopt foster children? Many states require parents to be married to qualify as foster parents, thus, before gay marriage was legalized, this ruled out same-sex couples from fostering in several states. However, now, eight states support same-sex couples in adopting foster children by putting laws in place against discrimination.