Same Sex Parents Essay, Research Paper

Same Sex Parents

“Whatever the final equation of factors influencing sexual orientation

and identity, there’s an immediate implication for the increasing number of gays

and lesbians forming families” (Of Boys 27). Today, many gays and lesbians are ?

out of the closet? and they are not afraid of facing society with what many

people consider abnormal sexual orientations. We must now ask ourselves the

question: is homosexuality really an abnormal lifestyle? Is it still against

the norm? Homosexuals are just like everyone else in every way aside from their

sexual preferences. Why should adoption be an area where gays and lesbians are

discriminated against? Without the constraints and pressures of demographic

norms, the idea and practice of homosexual adoption has no known harmful

implications upon the children involved. Therefore, I find it unnecessary to

restrict their rights and desires to adopt and raise children in families just

as you or I would.

An adoption agency looks for good qualities in a foster home. Qualities

such as financially security, emotional stability, and ?proper? role models.

Judge Judith S. Kaye wrote that ?…adoption is a means of securing the best

possible home for a child? (Facts on File 894). Some might argue that the child

would be lacking the father in a lesbian couple and a mother in a gay couple.

Sure, little Joey might not have a male role-model around the house, but all the

kids raised by single mothers seem to be okay. Children who lose a parent and

are raised in single parent households are not harmed. Or are they? If they

are, they are affected in just the same way as children raised by gay and

lesbian couples ?that is, couples who are lacking a male or female role model.

Children raised with parents of the same sex develop positive tolerances.

They tend to have more positive outlooks, and have a degree of passiveness that

makes them to better adapt to today’s changing society. A child raised by gay

parents has a better chance of getting along with a future employer that

possesses a quality he or she disagrees with. This, by no means, is to say that

this reason alone is sufficient for legalization of homosexual adoption, but it

does, however, point out a very desirable side-effect that is becoming

increasingly helpful in today’s changing world ?a side effect that encourages

and assists our human race in its effort towards total equality. Many people

tend to think that children raised by same sex couples might be influenced

towards a homosexual lifestyle themselves. This, however, has not been the case.

After Kristin Dozier’s 9th birthday, her mother divorced and re-married.

Kristin was fifteen at the time when she said, ?My experience proves this

argument wrong? (171). Today Kristin lives with her boyfriend and claims that

she does not ?…have lesbian urges…? (171). Kristin came to peace about

homosexuality due to her close exposure to the lifestyle. In other words, she

did have trouble accepting it earlier in life. She ?…would make up stories

to explain Diane’s presence…? to her friends that would sleep over (171).

These types of situations certainly do not help kids during the most self-

conscious periods of their lives.

There are many children out there in need of good foster care and I find

it ridiculous to waste all the love those families have to offer over something

so minute -simple discrimination is what this is really all about. Until we can

open our eyes as a people and realize the constraints we blindly put upon

ourselves, we will continue to fall short of our full potential.