Essay

The issue of same sex adoption has been going around for a
few years. Adoption for gay couples should be legalized
everywhere because anyone who wants to adopt must be able to
meet the requirements of being a loving parent, despite his or her
sexual preferences. If heterosexual couples just dont want
children, the solution to this problem can be to give homosexual
couples the right of adopting children. These couples have the
same skills and resources as other parents, yet they are not
allowed to give a child everything he or she needs, such as love,
protection and security.
There is a huge number of orphan children that need a home
in the world. These children are waiting to be adopted by loving
parents. While at the same time there is a huge number of gay
couples who want to provide love to children by adopting them and
having a family. According to a study made by Guttmacher
Institute, 50% of pregnancies in the United States arent planned,
this means that most of these non-planned babies will be left in
foster cares and wont have the chance of having a family. Around
the world, there are more than 7 million children in foster care
according to UNICEF. And only in the United States, more than
half of gay men couples and 41% of lesbians would like to adopt,
according to a study made by the Urban Institute.
An article published by NBC tells the story of how Danny Stewart
and Peter Mercurio had the chance of becoming parents 12 years
ago. Stewart was in the NYC subway one day when he saw
something in the floor, which he thought that could be a doll. But
when he saw the little baby moving, he rushed and called the
paramedics. Three months later he was in court explaining how he
found the baby, when the judge asked him if he would like to keep
the baby boy, he felt confused. Since gay marriage wasnt even
legal back then, Stewart thought it would be complicated, but it
wasnt. He and his couple had the baby by the holidays, and 12
years later they are a solid and happy family.
Gay marriage was recently legalized in the United States,
and it is possible in Mexico thanks to the right of amparo, but
what about gay adoption? There are several laws that are still
against adoption, these laws show discrimination and very little
tolerance. There is a full support of the Human Rights Committee
for equality, and there are several laws against these types of

discrimination, but gay people deserve to be recognized as

individuals capable of providing love and stability. They should be
given the right to adopt because they are stable couples who
actually want a child. They are willing to provide him or her
everything he or she needs. On the website from ABC News, Alan
Farnham wrote, "Straight couples are mostly favored over gay
male couples 15.9 percent of the time; straight couples are also
favored over lesbians 15.6 percent of the time[...], according to
several studies. Another study made in 2007 by Gay, Lesbian &
Straight Education Network stated that social victimization
increased for all GLBT students of color, racial minority status who
attended suburban and rural schools. A great example of
discrimination against same sex couples has been happening for a
while in Michigan. Most of the adoption services are faith-based,
and they affirm that they should protect the children they are taking
care of. These facilities state that they wont let the government
force them to place adoptive kids in places they find sinful. There
is a lot of discrimination in the process because they are taking
decisions based on their faith and not in the law.
In contrast to the affirmative part, we found that the world
that 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. According to some studies published in the
Archives of General Psychiatry, persons that identified themselves
as homosexual had almost double the rate of suicidal ideation or
attempts, substance abuse problems and psychological disorders,
than people who identified themselves as heterosexual. One of the
studies found that 78.6% of the gay, lesbian or bisexual group
suffered from multiple disorders. These kind of psychological
problems could affect the children in several ways and it could
create an unhealthy environment for them. Most of these kids are
known to be bullied at school. According to Paige Schilt, her kid
was bullied in school because he had two moms. She wrote in a
blog that while she was having dinner with her couple and her kid,
her son said that a kid in class bullied him by saying that being gay
is bad and he looked like a dog just because he had two mothers.
But even though children are constantly bullied because they
have gay parents, sexual acceptation has grown over the years
and people have become more tolerant about the subject. There
are more parents that start educating their children to accept

others no matter the differences. In 2010 Judith Stacey, a NYU

sociologist and Tim Biblarz, A USC sociologist, made a study about
gay parenting, in which they found no differences between children
raised in homes with two heterosexual parents and children raised
with lesbian parents. Stacey stated that 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,"
The Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families
(ACHESS) is also a great example on this issue. This large
investigation of 500 Australian children below the age of 18 with
same sex parents 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 self-esteem," said Caitlin Ryan, director
of the Family Acceptance Project at the Csar E. Chvez Institute
at San Francisco State University.
As a conclusion, the legalization of gay adoption would benefit our
society because orphan children will be given the blessing of
having a loving family. This right will make gay couples equal to
heterosexual ones, giving everyone the ability to raise a child in a
loving and secure home, and most importantly, everyone who
wants a child deserves to become a parent and should not be
denied the pleasure of raising a child. The fact that homosexual
couples are fighting so much to gain this right reflects how they will
take care of these children, since they actually want to become
parents.
Everyone deserves the love of a family, and has the right to
fight for it. Once homosexuality is accepted as every other kind of
love, every kind of family will be just another one. Love and family
have no barriers, and no one should be given the authority to
determine how it is conceived.
References

Cheng, P. (2013, March 13). Couple Tells Story of Adopting Baby Found in
Subway 12 Years Ago. Retrieved October 13, 2015 from
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Baby-Found-Subway-12-YearsLater-Fathers-Married-Chelsea-Station-197708331.html

Discrimination Against Gays and Lesbians. (2014, November). Retrieved

October
13,
2015,
from
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Gay_an
d_lesbian_issues_discrimination?open

Docherty, T. (2013, March 3). New UK study shows children adopted by samesex couples thriving. Retrieved October 13, 2015, from
http://www.lgbtadoptfosterweek.org.uk/adoption/new-uk-study-showschildren-adopted-by-same-sex-couples-thriving-2/

Pappas, S. (2012, January 15). Why Gay Parents May be the Best Parents.
Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://www.livescience.com/17913advantages-gay-parents.html

Schilt, P. (2012, January 31). The Incident: My Son Was Bullied For Having
Gay
Parents.
Retrieved
October
13,
2015,
from
http://www.familyequality.org/equal_family_blog/2012/01/31/1099/the_i
ncident_my_son_was_bullied_for_having_gay_parents

SOS Children's Village: Statistics. (2015). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from
http://www.sos-usa.org/our-impact/childrens-statistics
11 Facts About Gay Rights. (2014). Retrieved October 13, 2015, from
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-gay-rights