Debate Brief

Pro Same Sex Adoption

THESIS. Anyone who wants to adopt must be able to meet the requirements of being a
loving parent, despite his or her sexual preferences.
PRO idea 1. High number of orphans in the world
Evidence
There is a huge number of orphan children that need a home. Also there is a huge
number of gay couples who want to provide it.
StatisticsAccording to a study made by Guttmacher Institute 50% of pregnancies in the United
States aren`t planned.
25% of kids placed with adoptive homosexual parents were older than 3 years old.
Acording to a study made in 2007 by the Urban Institute found that more than half of
gay men and 41% of lesbians in the United states would like to adopt.
60% of gay and lesbian adpotive parent adopt across races.
Acording to UNICEF There are 7 million children in foster care.
Story"In an article by Jon Campbell, it is stated that a man, Danny Stewart, found a recentlyborn baby on a subway. The baby was taken into custody and when Jon Campbell was
asked to testify about this baby the judge asked if he was interested in adopting. Soon
after, he and his partner, Peter Mercurio, adopted the baby, thinking that it might be
their only chance in adopting a child"
PRO idea 2. Discrimination against gay couples
Evidence
Laws against same sex adoption is discrimination. Gay people deserve to be
recognized as individuals capable of providing love and stability.
Statistics
On the website for ABC News, Alan Farnham wrote, "Straight couples were favored
over gay male couples 15.9 percent of the time; straight couples were favored over
lesbians 15.6 percent of the time, according to the study.
Story
William Blacquiere is the President and CEO of Bethany Christian Services.
Bethany and some other faith-based adoption services such as Catholic Charities
actually want to put in law what they do in practice. They say they must protect their

religious liberties and not be forced by government to help place adoptive kids in
homes of people who live in a way the agencies find sinful.
But they get paid by the state to place kids in homes up to $10 thousand dollars a
child.
They, by taking state money, are a state actor. If they have a policy that they target gay
people for discriminatory treatment, I think that raises some equal protection concerns
under our state constitution.
There is discrimination in the process.
CONS- Adopted children will be discriminated
Children who grow up in a gay family will be discriminated and may not live happy.
These kids are going to grow up will psychological problems.
Highlight evidence
The world we live in is not fully prepared to understand the concept of different families,
and this can affect children that have gay parents in many ways. The psychological
effects they may have include bullying and rejection, especially in group environments
such as school or sport clubs.
Give statistics
Studies published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that persons selfidentified as homosexual in comparison to the general public had almost double the
rate of suicidal ideation or attempts, substance abuse problems and psychological
disorders. One of the studies found that 78.6% of the gay, lesbian or bisexual group
suffered from multiple disorders.
Share a personal experience or a story.
A kid in Texas was constantly bullied in school because he had two moms. According to
the mother, who wrote on a blog about this, The story unfolded over dinner at our
favorite neighborhood Texmex restaurant. Waylon was well into his second bean and
cheese taco when he broached the subject. "Mom, B-- said that being gay is bad." B-is an older kid who attends Waylon's after-school program. He has a prime position in
the elementary school social hierarchy because his parents allow him to play Call of
Duty: Modern Warfare. "What did you do when he said that?" I was trying to keep my
voice calm. I was thinking do not freak out, do not freak out, do not let him see that you
are kind of freaking out.
"I said, 'My parents are gay.'" "What did he say?" my wife, Katy, asked. She was using
her professional therapist voice. "He said that must be why I look like his dog when I
smile.".
Explain why these might be true BUT....
In a 2010 review of virtually every study on gay parenting, New York University
sociologist Judith Stacey and University of Southern California sociologist Tim Biblarz
found no differences between children raised in homes with two heterosexual parents
and children raised with lesbian parents.
"There's no doubt whatsoever from the research that children with two lesbian parents
are growing up to be just as well-adjusted and successful" as children with a male and
a female parent," Stacey told LiveScience.

There is very little research on the children of gay men, so Stacey and Biblarz couldn't
draw conclusions on those families. But Stacey suspects that gay men "will be the best
parents on average," she said.
The myth of poor mental health by children of same sex parents has been debunked
by an Australian study conducted at the University of Melborne and published in the
journal BMC Public Health. The Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families
(ACHESS) is a large investigation of 500 Australian children below the age of 18 with
same sex parents. Researchers found that children with LGBT parents had the same
amount of self-esteem and spent as much family time with their parents compared to
children of heterosexual parents. In fact, investigators found that children of gay and
lesbian couples to be healthier and have a stronger family unit.
"Research shows that children raised by gay or lesbian parents do as well as other
children in terms of well-being, adjustment, functioning and peer relationships, and
researchers have found no differences in terms of depression, anxiety and selfesteem," said Caitlin Ryan, director of the Family Acceptance Project at the Csar E.
Chvez Institute at San Francisco State University.