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have
found homes yet groups against gay adoption seek to reduce the number of available homes based on false perception
and unfounded evidence about gay parents.
In an era when many children are raised by single parents - with proven disadvantages such as lower educational
achievements and poor behavior - gay couples offer adopted children two full-time parents.
- 2007 breakdown of adopted children in the United States: Private domestic, 677,000 (38 percent); foster care, 661,000
(37 percent); international, 440,000 (25 percent).
More than half (55%) of 7th12th graders say they have looked up health information online in order to learn more about
an issue affecting themselves or someone they know.
There are already thousands of children living in gay couple households. The 2000 U.
S. Census reports 33% of female same-sex couple households and 22% of male samesex couple households already have at least one child under the age of 18 living at
home.
According to the American Psychological Association Policy Statement on Sexual
Orientation, Parents, & Children, "there is no reliable evidence that homosexual
orientation per se impairs psychological functioning. Second, beliefs that lesbian and
gay adults are not fit parents have no empirical foundation."
The American Psychological Association also states "Research suggests that sexual
identities (including gender identity, gender-role behavior, and sexual orientation)
develop in much the same ways among children of lesbian mothers as they do among
children of heterosexual parents"
There is no conclusive evidence that homosexuality is linked to one's environment. In
other words, growing up in a gay couple household will not "make" a child gay. Read
Nature vs. Nurture: Born or Made Gay
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, only 50,000 of the 120,000 children
available for adoption in recent years have found homes yet groups against gay
adoption seek to reduce the number of available homes based on false perception and
unfounded evidence about gay parents.
What happens if children in gay and lesbian couple households can't be adopted (or
the parents aren't granted legal custody)?
By banning gay adoption, children in gay couple households have no legal status
should something happen to the parents, including death or serious illness.
Neither the parent or child has visitation rights if the parents separate.
The child cannot claim inheritances or other household assets in case of death.
If one parent dies, the second parent has no legal right to take custody or care for the
child.
A parent without legal right to a child cannot legally register him/her for school.
Parents cannot put children on some health insurance plans.
Parents cannot make medical decisions for the child.
The child has no claim to the social security or other insurance benefits of the parent.
Gay couple parents without adoption rights do not benefit from the generous tax
deductions granted to heterosexual parents.
The American Academy of Pediatrics announced today (March 21) its support for
same-sex marriage, as well as full foster care and adoption rights for same-sex
couples.
"Children thrive in families that are stable and that provide permanent security, and
the way we do that is through marriage," Benjamin Siegel, who co-authored the policy
statement, said in a statement. "The AAP believes there should be equal opportunity
for every couple to access the economic stability and federal supports provided to
married couples to raise children."
Research on the children of gay couples is an emerging field, but so far, the evidence
is on the AAP's side. Here are five reasons that gay parents typically do a great job
raising kids.
1. They choose to have kids
Straight couples all to frequently have "oops" babies. According to the Guttmacher
Institute, about half of U.S. pregnancies are unplanned, and about half of those
unplanned pregnancies end in birth rather than abortion. Parents of unplanned babies
can do a great job, of course, but some are in dire circumstances. Two-thirds of
unplanned births in 2006 were paid for by Medicaid or other low-income insurance
programs, according to Guttmacher.
Gay couples, in contrast, generally have to plan to have babies, overcoming biological
limits to adopt, find surrogates or sperm donors, or use in vitro fertilization methods.
After persevering through those challenges, gay parents "tend to be more motivated,
more committed than heterosexual parents on average, because they chose to be
parents," Abbie Goldberg, a psychologist at Clark University in Massachusetts who
researches gay and lesbian parenting, told LiveScience last year.
Thus, the group parenting score of gay parents isn't as dragged down by people who
fell into parenthood accidentally and weren't prepared, Goldberg said. [10 Scientific
Tips for Raising Happy Kids]
2. They nurture the neediest
Gay parents are a huge resource for kids awaiting adoption, particularly the neediest
cases. In October 2011, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute found that 60
percent of gay and lesbian adoptive parents adopt across races, which is important
because minority kids have a tougher time getting out of the foster system. And 25
percent of kids placed with adoptive gay and lesbian parents were older than 3 also
a tough age range to adopt. More than half of the kids had special needs.
A 2007 report by the Urban Institute found that more than half of gay men and 41
percent of lesbians in the United States would like to adopt. That's a huge number of
potential parents, far dwarfing the more than 100,000 adoptable kids stuck in foster
care today.
3. They foster tolerance
Here's an advantage straight from the horse's mouth: Kids raised by gay and lesbian
parents say their upbringing taught them open-mindedness and empathy.
ARGUMENTS FOR:
ARGUMENTS AGAINST:
sexes. Boys without fathers under-achieve, especially since there are now
fewer male teachers in primary schools.
We are a 'Christian' country - even if few go to church, our values remain
based on Christian teaching. Two parents are axiomatic - 'Honour thy father
to adopt, the number of adopted children will decline, leaving more in the
unsatisfactory care system.
Some areas of life cannot be legislated for and must be left to individual
conscience. A sufficiently large minority simply find gay parenting 'wrong';
the practice therefore should not be enforced on all.