Homosexuality

The ability to create a nurturing home does not depend on a parent being gay or straight. An estimated 500,000 children are in foster care throughout the United States. Approximately 100,000 children are waiting to be adopted, 100,000 children that fore one reason or the other do not have a place to call home or a parent to feel loved by. Although there are many people who want to be adoptive parents, only about 20,000 are qualified adoptive parents. The Adoption and Foster Care policies do not consider same-sex couples to be qualified to be good adoptive parents. These policies should understand that good parenting has nothing to do with sexual orientation. These polices should deal with reality and understand that these children may never have a stable home if so many people continue being denied the right to be adoptive parents.

The people that oppose Gay and Lesbian adoption argue that a household with two mothers or two fathers is not a good environment for any child to grow up in. They claim that the children who grow up in a same-sex household will be made fun of at school, that they will most likely grow up to be gay, and that they are highly exposed to being sexually molested by their adoptive parents. However, these statements are shallow and there is really no evidence to prove that they are true.

The claim that gay or lesbian couples would not make as good parents as heterosexual couples is unconscious for one reason: if it weren't for heterosexuals, there would not be so many children in need of parents and a home in the first place. A great majority of the children that are up for adoption were abandoned by their biological parents because they did not think that they were ready to be parents, even if they knew the possible consequences of their actions when they engaged in sexual activity. If every child's biological parents would have been loving and caring people, they would have kept their child no matter what the circumstances were. These children that are waiting for adoptive parents were unwanted since before they were born. A same-sex couple wanting to adopt a child will prove to these children that good people do exist, and that there is a chance for them to have a family. Many studies have proved that homosexuals have a great capacity to love. They love their partner, and most of them hold very strong and steady relationships. These couples are as capable of raising children as any heterosexual couple.

The people who oppose Gay Adoption are correct in stating that a child needs both a male and a female role model. However, these role models do no necessarily have to be the parents of the child. Positive role models can be anyone the child knows. It can be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, or neighbor. Just because a child is adopted by a gay or lesbian couple does not mean that, that is all he or she will be exposed to. By having a family a child has a greater chance of growing up to be a good mother or a good father because children without a home do not count with either a mother figure or a father figure.

"Homosexuals are not degenerate creatures that brought themselves into the world" (Gonzalez 2004). They too have parents, and families who gave them values. Values which can be passed on to adopted children who would receive nothing if they are never adopted. The fact that someone is gay or lesbian does not mean that their whole family is gay or lesbian as well. The child can receive heterosexual advice from any member of the family or from a family friend if he/she need advice while growing up.

Another argument against Gay Adoption is that a child raised by a same-sex couple will be ridiculed by their peers at school. Children make fun of each other for many reasons. Very few kids go through school without ever being the target for jokes and pranks from their peers. It is a very common childhood problem that almost every child can get over with the love and support of parents.

Many people believe that children who grow up in same-sex households will grow up to be gay or lesbian like their adoptive parents. This statement has very little credibility considering that most children do not grow up to be like their parents. One would not expect a child to grow up to be a teacher simply because the child's parents are teachers. Although the possibility of a child following the parents' footsteps does exist, there is also a chance that a child will grow up to be something else. Sure, a same-sex couple's adopted