Adoption for All

Imagine a child without a home, sad and alone, feeling that no one is there for them. That
they have no one to lean on, and that they are just a child stuck in the system of the government,
a foster home the place they go home to every night. Imagine a child that hopes to one day have
someone to call mom or dad. Today more than 400,000 children are in foster care in the U.S.
with perfectly capable couples being denied their rights simply because of who they happen to
fall in love with. Not only is it hurting the gay community, but more so the children who are
being denied their right of a stable home based on someone elses personal belief. Gays and
lesbian should have the same adoption rights as heterosexual couples.
The first reason why same sex adoption is needed because sexual orientation does not
affect what type of parental abilities the parent has. Studies comparing children raised by straight
parents and children rose by gay parents show that the outcome of both groups of children are
the same. Qualities suck as self-esteem, relationships with peers, intelligence, behavior,
psychological adjustments, academic achievements and gender identity were the relatively the
same in all cases. (Adoption Bill Puts Religion Ahead of Children.) The outcome of the child is
determined by things such as parental abilities, as well as stresses in the family, and satisfaction
of the relationship, not by which sex the parent likes. It has been proven that same sex parents
appear to be more competent that heterosexual ones. Gay parents on average enjoy better
relationships with their children, and there have been absolutely no reported cases of sexual
abuse of the children of homosexual couples. Both heterosexual and gay parents can be
incapable of being good parents, but both groups can also be the best parents a child can have.
In an interview with the proud adopted son of two dads, a teenager opened up about his
life growing up as a child in foster care and then his chance to finally get adopted. He talked
about how while he was in foster care, he had hoped to one day be adopted by a traditional
family. As a child growing up with no family, all he had wanted was a regular place to call
home. He soon realized after learning he would be adopted by two men that it did not matter who
his parents were or who they were in love with. As long as they loved him as their son, he would
be fine with anyone. His perspective on society changed when he was adopted by two men proud
of be gay. However, the person he was did not change. He told that he was still the same guy and
called the way people perceived the children of gay parents stereotypical, and that for the child
of gay parents to turn out gay they have to be born that way. All he wanted to do was get out of
foster care and into a real family. His parents are the best things that have happened to him. He
said I am happy with the way things are now, especially with my two dads. And that he was
happy to finally have people to call family. A mom and a dad does not make a family, the people
who surround a person and loves them as they are does.
The last reason why same sex adoption is needed is because there are so many children
waiting to be adopted and gay couples are able to the children with stable homes and families.
Not every child in foster care is in high demand; more than forty percent of children wait on
average nearly 3 years in order to finally be adopted. Also the number of children in foster care
is decreasing steadily, while the number of children being adopted is on the rise. This is because
gays are earning more rights in society, adopting rights being one of them. Studies have shown
that children in foster care tend to be less fortunate then children not in foster care. The longer
the children wait to be adopted the lower their self-worth will be. According to the Congressional
Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), children raised in orphanages have an IQ score twenty
points lower than those out of foster care. Also each year over 27,000 youths age out of foster
care, meaning they grow up being an orphan, and stayed without a home till they were
considered too old to have a chance at one. Out of these 27,000 youth, nearly 25% of the kids
aging out did not have high school diplomas. Why hurt the children, when what they need is
right in front of them trying to give them exactly what they need. What they need is a family.
When people limit perfectly capable parents from adopting, it denies the children the opportunity
to get out of foster care and into a family.
While some critics of gay adoption may be against it because they believe that children of
gay parents do not have the same benefits of a traditional family, that statement is not true.
Considering many people of the gay community already have biological children, it shows that
not all children grow up in traditional families. According to the newspaper article Suit:
Allow Same Sex Couples to Adopt in N.C. the children of these parents are being denied the
protection that comes along with the right of having two legally recognized parents. Also a
traditional family is said to be a married couple, husband and wife, but this is not the case for
many heterosexual couples considering 4 in 10 children are born outside of marriage. Barely half
of all American adult couples are married, but these couples are not denied any adopting rights.
Since these couples are not actually considered to be able to provide traditional families, does
the government label these unmarried couples to a lower legal status? The answer is no. Why is
it that these people arent discriminated against but gay couples are? The logic is not there, plus
what about the gay people who already have children. Their children should not have to suffer
because their parents fell in love with someone society does not deem right. Limiting their
adopting rights does not allow for the partner of these gay parents to full access of their
significant others children. Not just the children in foster care are suffering, but also the children
who are completely innocent and for them it is just a matter the matter of who their parents are.
To sum it all up, limiting the gay communitys rights hurts the children of the nation in
the process. Gays and lesbians should have the same adopting rights as heterosexual couples.
Gays should have the same rights as heterosexual couples in all instances, but thats a topic for
another paper. Simply enough, all the signs and statistics point to gays be perfectly capable
parents, if not better ones. The entire topic is what is best for the entire community and not just
the parents. People should not be able to deny some the right to a family because they happened
to fall in love with someone who happened to be the same sex as them, and definitely should not
be able to deny the children stuck in foster care a chance to get out of it.