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Cia Soto

English 9B/ Per 4

Mr. Boyatt

22 April 2015

Giving Them A Chance

There are countless children who grow up entrapped in foster care, or parentless, just waiting to

be adopted by a loving family to raise and care for them, yet hundreds, if not thousands of these children

never get that chance for a supportive life. The importance for gay couples to adopt is because in almost

every state there is a desperate need for qualified families to take in unwanted, neglected, or abused

children. These children linger in a political sea of inane regulations many times based on religious and

self righteous opinions. Gay couples should be able to adopt children based on their individual

qualifications and ability to love and care for a child.

Each state has its own history regarding same sex and gays adopting children. For

example California has a long history going back 30 years on allowing gay people to adopt children.

Unlike California, the states of Florida, Mississippi, and Utah have explicit laws prohibiting gay couples

from adopting children.

Gay and lesbian parents are fully capable of providing loving, secure homes for children

just as well as straight parents. There is no credible study that can prove a person’s sexual orientation

individually contributes to an inability to provide a stable home to raise children (“Too High a..”).

Sexuality does not influence a parent’s love and care for their children. Nor does it affect how much they

protect and stand up for them. It does not interfere with how intelligent a child is brought up to be either.
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The supposedly “theorized” reasons for homosexual parents to hinder and disrupt a child’s natural growth

and learning have been unable to be supported by any kind of research (“Sexual Orientation..”).

Some people raise their concerns of children being teased for having gay parents, and while a

child may be teased for that, “Teasing is what children do,” (Ricketts and Achtenberg “Adoption and

Foster..”). Children are teased for their hair, clothes, and just about anything, but instead of taking it all

for threats, it usually seen as an opportunity for their children to grow as people (Issues and Concerns).

There is no proven fact that children of gay parents have more or less stress from teasing at school, in

fact, they are more apt to have an open mind and empathy for those who are not the same as the typical

norm. Although teasing is a common community problem, it is not geared only to children with gay

parents.

There are several children who linger in foster care for being considered “too old” or having

“special needs”. Many mainstream families yearn for the perfect newborn baby, while gay parents are so

eager to have a child at all that they are more likely to adopt a child who is older and may have special

needs. The United States has a desperate need for qualified parents, and to prohibit gay parents from

adopting does not make sense and does not merit.

There is absolutely no evidence that a parent, due to being gay, could not provide a stable home

for a child. The argument is unfounded and on the contrary, gay parents have been found to provide very

loving homes and well adjusted children. They also have been found “to be more motivated, more

committed than heterosexual parents on average, because they chose to be parents… compared with an

almost 50 percent pregnancy rate of heterosexual parents” (Abbie Goldberg and “Why Gay Parents..”).
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One could even argue that these children would benefit from having a stable gay home, opening up their

minds to accepting people for their differences having empathy for ignorance (Stephanie Pappas).

Consequently, gay adoption opens the door for unwanted, neglected, and abused children

to enter into a life with a true family, a forever home, support, and unconditional love. It helps foster

upcoming and wonderful minds who without them, would linger in a limbo state of constant uncertainty.

Allowing gay couples to adopt opens the floodgates of potentially ridding our country of children without

a secure loving home.

Works Cited

A Resource for Psychologists, District of Columbia, 1995; Child Welfare League of America, Issues in
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Gay and Lesbian Adoption: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Peirce-Warwick Adoption

Symposium, District of Columbia, 1995.

Eagle, R., "The Separation Experience of Children in Long Term Care: Theory, Resources, and

Implications for Practice," The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Vol. 64, pp. 421-434

(1994); Robert, G., et al., "A Foster Care Resource Agenda For the Ô90's," Child Welfare Vol.

LXXIII, No. 5, pp. 525-552 (1994).

Huggins, S.L. A Comparative Study of Self-Esteem of Adolescent Children of Divorced Lesbian

Mothers and Divorced Heterosexual Mothers. (1989). Journal of Homosexuality, 18 (1/2):

123-135.

"Overview of Lesbian and Gay Parenting, Adoption and Foster Care." American Civil Liberties Union.

Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

"Sexual Orientation, Parents, & Children." Http://www.apa.org. Web. 03 May 2015.

Sokoloff, B., "Antecedents of American Adoption," The Future of Children. Vol. 3, No. 1 (1993), pp.

17-26; Cole, E. & Donley, K., "History, Values, and Placement Policy Issues In Adoption," in

The Psychology of Adoption. Eds. David Brodzinsky & Marshall Schecter, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1990), pp. 273-294.

Pappas, By Stephanie. "Why Gay Parents May Be the Best Parents." LiveScience. TechMedia Network,

15 Jan. 2012. Web. 03 May 2015.