The Mississippi Code Must Go

The decisions made in government affect not only our lives as individuals, but they affect our families as well. The laws placed at a national level are usually widely accepted, though state and local level laws can be more specific and less respected. For example, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma it is illegal for a person to own more than two adult cats (Bartlesville). Other laws may not seem as silly as that one, but can be just as unfair. According to the Mississippi Code of 1972, adoption by couples of the same gender is prohibited (Mississippi). This state law affects the lives of homosexuals in Mississippi in a big way, prohibiting them from living a full life of freedom. It is disappointing and ironic that this law limits individual freedom, though America was built on freedom.

The Mississippi Code of 1972, Section 93-17-3, was created in 1972, and recently amended in 2004. It is strictly a state law which prohibits couples of the same gender to adopt children. Mississippi is one of the few states that implement such a restriction. By doing so, the Mississippi government creates the perception that it does not want gay couples raising children.

Although the Mississippi government may not want gay couples raising children, there is a loophole. Nowhere in the section does it say anything about the prohibition of a single homosexual person adopting a child. Technically, a homosexual can adopt a child by acting alone, while sharing a home with their partner. This way a couple of the same gender can legally raise a child together, though one of them will not officially be an adoptive parent of the child they are raising. Unless a strict watch is kept over the homosexuals that adopt children as single parents, this sect...

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...72, or in America.

Bibliography

Badgett, Lee, Kate Chambers, Gary J. Gates, Jennifer Ehrle Macomber. “Adoption and Foster

Care by Gay and Lesbian Parents in the United States.” March 2007. 20 July 2011.

Bartlesville, Oklahoma Municipal Code. Sec. 3-25. “Keeping of dogs and cats restricted.” 1986.

20 July 2011. statename=Oklahoma> Eitzen, D. Stanley, Barbara Wells, Maxine Baca Zinn. Diversity in Families. Boston: Pearson,

2008. Print.

Mississippi Code of 1972. SEC. 93-17-3. “Who may be adopted; who may adopt; venue of

adoption proceedings; certificate of child's condition; change of name; adoption by couples of same gender prohibited.” < http://www.mscode.com/free/statutes/ 93/017/0003.htm>1972. 20 July 2011.