Several people are opposed to the idea of homosexuals adopting. Nonetheless, homosexuals have an abundance of privileges as many other couples do. Sexual orientation doesn’t have any relevance on your entitlement to adoption.
Families are usually the central source of socialization. When we define the word family, a numerous of people would include a mother, father, and at best two children, possibly one child. Truly speaking of a nuclear family, but realistically families take different appearances and are represented in other ways. However, gay and lesbian families may not follow the traditional framework of what defines a family, but they most certainly create families and homes in their own ways. In fact it’s already hard enough for gays and lesbians to fit in with society and being accepted by the way in which they form relationships, creating families and making homes of their own should be anything but undervalued.
Entirely, gays and lesbians in the United States live under constant inspection and discernment. When it boils down to having a free and wholesome life, this classification is deprived of countless rights and unreasonably treated due to their sexuality. For this reason, coming out in itself is already a difficult step, than again where there are wives, husbands and children involved; it becomes a very delicate situation. “It is a process to accept a gay or lesbian parent and research shows that it is never too late for it to come out to children. While it may still be shocking, coming out to kids once they are grown up is a bit more difficult than coming out to young children and teenagers due to the fact that they are still in a developmental stage and have not had time enough to form their own opinions on ...
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...ds to stop as well or they will come out on strike and put up a fight , they should not be treated any different then you and I in this country. We are all one.
Works Cited
1. Barret Robert, L., & Robinson Bryan, E. (1990). Gay fathers. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
2. Lehmann Jennifer, M. (2001). The gay & lesbian marriage & family reader. New York, NY: Richard Altschuler & Associates, INC.
3. Life Long Adoptions, INC. (2011). Adoption for fay parents. Retrieved from http://www.lifelongadoptions.com/gay-lesbian-adoption
4. Pearson Education, INC. (2000-2011). Gay and lesbian adopters. Retrieved from http://life.familyeducation.com/adoption/nontraditional-families/45789.html?detoured=1
5. Richman Kimberly, D. (2009). Court change, queer parents, judges, and the transformation of American family law. New York, NY and London: New York University Press.
The American family is constantly undergoing changes. In the early 1600s, the Godly Family was the prevalent family structure of the first Europeans who immigrated to the United States (Aulette, 2010). Until 1780, families were strictly patriarchal with a male head of the family, who supervised “all social activities, including education, health care, and welfare”, and insured the family’s self-sufficiency within its community (Aulette, 2010). Following this form, the Modern Family and its sub-categories, the Democratic Family and the Companionate Family, were the dominant family structures until the 1970s (Aulette, 2010). Throughout the course of almost 200 years, families evolved into more private institutions aside from the community, women withdrew more and more from physical work on the family’s property and concentrated on their designated occupation as a mother, caregiver and housewife. Men were still the head of the family in terms of pursuing an occupation to financially provide for the family’s needs. During this time, gender-specific roles within the family were reinforced, which are still partially in effect in today’s society and family structure. Since the mid-20th century, the American family seems to be changing more rapidly than ever, partially because of the influences of the Great Depression and World War II, which led to the remarkable baby boom of 1946 to 1964. Not only did the year of 1970 mark the beginning of the most recent stage in the history of the (European) American family, the Postmodern Family, it also was the year in which the first gay couple applied for a marriage license (ProCon.org, 2013). Even though the two men’s request had been denied back then, same-sex couples and their family structure h...
Abstract On June 26, 2015 a divided Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples could now marry nationwide. At the time of the split ruling there were 9 supreme court justices, 5 of the justices were Republicans, and the remaining 4 were Democrats. In high profile cases it is except that the justices will vote along party lines. When the 5-4 ruling was reveled by the following statement. “It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right (Corn,2015).” written by
One definition is “a significant social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children.” While such definition is a good starting point, some modern family structures are excluded by such definition. In her essay, “Family: Idea, Institution, and Controversy,” Betty Farrell apparently assumes that the traditional family has dramatically changed, and the dynamics of change—altered the definition of a “family.” A family is no longer a picture of a particular image of the mythic past, referring to the golden days of the “1950s.” It is no longer a father, mother and their biological children living together under one roof (and certainly not with the a breadwinner father and a stay-at-home mother). In today 's modern society, it is now common to see women raising their children by themselves without their husbands’ help; unmarried couples living together; and gay and lesbian couples—while far from being universally accepted—adopting and raising children to complete their families. Therefore, despite the children living in one-parent households, or they do not live with their “married-heterosexual-biological-parents” under the same roof—does not necessarily mean they are not families. Farrell states that “a family is defined not so much by a particular set of people as by the quality of relationships that bind them together.” In other words, Farrell believes that a “family” is more than just a collection
Meezan, William and Jonathan Rauch. "Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Parenting,and America's Children." Marriage and Child Wellbeing 15 (2005): 2.
If there are over two million LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people willing to adopt a child, why not give a child a permanent home? There are over 65,000 adopted children and 14,000 foster children in the U.S. that are being raised in homes headed by non-heterosexual individuals or couples (Evan B. 2011). To let same sex couples adopt has been a huge deal throughout the United States for the past years that some states even banned them from ever adopting. Many lesbian and gay couples have been denied the application to adopt due to agencies that have negative views towards the couple because of religion or other beliefs. Everyone no matter who they are have “equal rights” and those rights are disrespected daily when it comes to homosexuals adopting or even thinking of becoming a parent themselves. Even though it is said children need both a male and a female parent to psychologically develop properly, homosexual couples should have the ability to adopt because they are equally capable of raising a child as a heterosexual couple.
Pappas, Stephanie. “Why Gay parents May Be The Best Parents”. LiveScience. 15 Jan. 2012. Web. 24
The ruling of Baehr vs. Lewin was a victory for gay rights activists, hope for other states searching for the same freedom, and disappointment for opponents of same-sex marriage. Yet this victory was short lived (until complete legalization in November 13, 2013) since the state appealed the lower court’s decis...
... if? The legal consequences of marriage and the legal needs of lesbian and gay male couples. Michigan Law review. Nov.1996. Pg. 447-491. http://www.jstor.org.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/stable/1290119?seq=1&uid=3739664&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103079482127
...(2004, May 24). The Rise of the Gay Family. U.S. News & World Report, p. 40.
In recent years, same-sex relationships have become more encompassing in US society. State legislation is changing such as accepting gay marriages, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and legal gay adoptions; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is becoming public. Gay-headed families, like heterosexuals, are diverse and varying in different forms. Whether a created family is from previous heterosexual relationships, artificial insemination, or adoption, it deserves the same legal rights heterosexual families enjoy. Full adoption rights needs to be legalized in all states to provide a stable family life for children because sexual orientation does not determine parenting skills, children placed with homosexual parents have better well-being than those in foster care, and there are thousands of children waiting for good homes.
There are many reason why gay adoption is banned and why people object to it. Some people like Bill Maier, a child psychologist working with the conservative Focus on the Family, would say, “Children in foster care ‘are already scarred’ by abuse and neglect, we would want to do everything we could to place them in the optimal home environment” (Watson). Foster children would prefer a loving and nurturing home with a gay couple, rather than move around from foster parent to foster parent. Foster children are often victims of "foster care shuffle." For example, a child can live in twenty different homes before he or she turns eighteen. Anna Freud, a child psychologist, wrote “a child can handle almost anything better than instability”
This problem or issue is one that is proving to be a bigger one than many people most likely expected. In Today’s more liberal society, homosexuality seeing more acceptance than ever before. Homosexuals and heterosexuals alike have parental instincts and are as interested in beginning families and raising children. A family should be based on love and trust, if these two elements are present in a relationship, homosexual or heterosexual, there would be no reason that the environment the couple creates for a child would be bad. Some say the homosexual lifestyle revolves only around sex, which of course is the most inappropriate subject for a child. (White) For the most part, parents and adults keep what happens behind closed doors, private, therefore, there would be no reason for a homosexual person to flaunt their sex life, especially in front of a child.
Dr. Hicks (2008), a scholar at the University of Salford, stated profoundly that “instead of asking whether gay parenting is bad for kids, we should ask how contemporary discourses of sexuality maintain the very idea that lesbian and gay families are essentially different and, indeed, deficient.” By viewing same-sex parenting as an equal means of bringing up a child, research could move on to deeper studies that incorporate this family structure into analyses of children, marriages, and families.
The sociological definition of the family is “a set of people related by blood, marriage or some other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society” (Schaeffer, 2009, p. 288). While the nuclear family (a man, a woman, and their children) was once the primary definition of family, now it refers to many familial configurations. Single-parent families, blended families, same-sex couples, traditional nuclear families and single-parents who have adopted are just a few of the configurations that society in general now views as a family. A healthy family will provide a place of unconditional love, acceptance and support.
Savin-Williams, Ritch C. Mom, Dad, I'm Gay: How Families Negotiate Coming out. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2001. Print.