Essay/Term paper: Same sex parents

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Sex

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.