"Children raised by gay parents are more likely to be molested."
"Children need both a mother and father figure."
"Gay parents make gay kids."
These are just a few morsels of ignorance I thought I'd share with you today. There really is nothing quite like a person who has so much conviction about a topic he or she knows virtually nothing about. It is a sad and pathetic display of hatred and intolerance.
Homosexual couples can't be parents? Give me three good reasons why you think a gay couple can't raise a child properly, and I will give you eight better reasons that will prove you wrong.
In an earlier era, the attacks were leveled against single men and women seeking to adopt. And no doubt before that, the small-minded individuals of our fine country decided it was not right for black men and women to adopt white children or Jewish men and women to adopt Christian children and so on.
"Don't confuse me with the facts," as the adage goes.
The far right has blocked gay adoption in a number of states, including several in the South, such as Florida, Arkansas and Mississippi. This is all in the name of protecting children.
This is all in spite of the fact that over the past two decades, heterosexual and homosexual households have been found comparable in terms of children's relationship with their peers, children's self esteem, quality of parent-child relationships and the psychological well-being of both parents and children.
All this exists in spite of the fact that the American Psychological Association, the National Council for Adoptable Children and the Child Welfare League of America, experts on what's best for kids, have each publicly declared that restrictions on gay adoption is not only bad policy, but it's harmful toward children.
Conservatives want children adopted by "normal" families, which, according to them, includes a mother, father, dog and white picket fence (preferably white ... shhh).
But what Trent Lott and Jesse Helms and their ilk don't want to acknowledge is that less than one in every four households has the traditional husband, wife and child.
They also would like to overlook problems like child abuse, neglect, divorce and other problems that are just as likely to affect traditional households as any other.
It's easier to believe out-of-date stereotypes and to try to remember the good ol' days of the 1950s and before when it was tolerated -- and in some places encouraged -- to make blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Jews and gays the outcasts of society.
Open your eyes: being heterosexual and married does not make you an automatic candidate for "Parent of the Year."
There are 568,000 children in foster care in the U.S. -- only 46,000 will be adopted this year. In 1999, the number of kids entering foster care was triple that of kids adopted out of foster care.
Each year, 25,000 foster kids leave the system, having turned 18 years old and never having had parents. Is this a healthy way to raise children?
Among gay couples, 49% want to adopt, and many are willing to take on "less desirable" children -- ones with physical or mental disabilities or with HIV. They just want a child to love.
The irony is that in most states, gay couples can be foster parents. Nationally, 64% of adoptive parents were the foster parents that the children already knew, trusted and maybe loved.
But that doesn't matter to those wonderful child advocates known as the far right. If the loving foster parents happen to be gay in certain states, it's "tough luck, kid, and off you go." Again I ask, is this a healthy way to raise children?
The only proven difference between children from heterosexual households and children from gay households is just that -- a difference, and one that might be a positive for many children.
Kids raised by gay parents are less confined by traditional gender roles. Consider this: 52 percent of girls raised in gay households wanted to be career-oriented while a mere 21 percent of girls raised by straight moms had these goals.
Those are the facts, people.
If the far-right minded ever respected those facts, maybe a few things would change -- like more children would be loved by two parents.
Simply put, the same rules that would be used to determine if a straight couple is good for adoption should be used for gay couples.
What is the length and strength of the relationship? Is the couple financially prepared to care for a child?
Can the couple provide a safe and healthy environment? Is there any criminal history? Do the prospective parents have careers that will allow them to be home most nights with their child?
If the answers all come back positive, then sexual orientation shouldn't matter.
And if the answers all come back positive, but sexual orientation does matter, as it does in far too many states, then the question is not about sexual orientation; it's about discrimination.
If all men (and women!) are created equal, let's not allow stereotypes to completely desecrate our Constitution.
17 comments
Whoever wrote this article obviously has a huge chip on their shoulder and is just as incorrect in their sterotypes and hate speech as the stereotypes and hate speech they are contesting. I thought you aspiring journalists would do better research.
Leviticus 20:13 "'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.Why would Gpd create you to be gay if this is in His word?! HE wouldn't. Being homosexual is a choice you make for yourself. You are an abomination to Him, end of story.