Homosexual Adoption

"Whatever the final equation of factors influencing sexual orientation and identity, there's an immediate implication for the increasing number of gays and lesbians forming families" (Of Boys 27). Today, many gays and lesbians are "out of the closet" and they are not afraid of facing society with what many people consider abnormal sexual orientations. We must now ask ourselves the question: is homosexuality really an abnormal lifestyle? Is it still against the norm? Homosexuals are just like everyone else in every way aside from their sexual preferences. Why should adoption be an area where gays and lesbians are discriminated against? Without the constraints and pressures of demographic norms, the idea and practice of homosexual adoption has no known harmful implications upon the children involved. Therefore, I find it unnecessary to restrict their rights and desires to adopt and raise children in families just as you or I would.
An adoption agency looks for good qualities in a foster home. Qualities such as financially security, emotional stability, and "proper" role models. Judge Judith S. Kaye wrote that "...adoption is a means of securing the best possible home for a child" (Facts on File 894). Some might argue that the child would be lacking the father in a lesbian couple and a mother in a gay couple. Sure, little Joey might not have a male role-model around the house, but all the kids raised by single mothers seem to be okay. Children who lose a parent and are raised in single parent households are not harmed. Or are they? If they are, they are affected in just the same way as children raised by gay and lesbian couples -that is, couples who are lacking a male or female role model.
Children raised with parents of the same sex develop positive tolerances. They tend to have more positive outlooks, and have a degree of passiveness that makes them to better adapt to today's changing society. A child raised by gay parents has a better chance of getting along with a future employer that possesses a quality he or she disagrees with. This, by no means, is to say that this reason alone is sufficient for legalization of homosexual adoption, but it does, however, point out a very desirable side-effect that is becoming increasingly helpful in today's changing world -a side effect that encourages and assists our human race in its effort towards total equality.
Many people tend to think that children raised by same sex couples might be influenced towards a homosexual lifestyle themselves. This, however, has not been the case. After Kristin Dozier's 9th birthday, her mother divorced and re-married. Kristin was fifteen at the time when she said, "My experience proves this argument wrong" (171). Today Kristin lives with her boyfriend and claims that she does not "...have lesbian urges..." (171). Kristin came to peace about homosexuality due to her close exposure to the lifestyle. In other words, she did have trouble accepting it earlier in life. She "...would make up stories to explain Diane's presence..." to her friends that would sleep over (171). These types of situations certainly do not help kids during the most self-conscious periods of their lives.
There are many children out there in need of good foster care and I find it ridiculous to waste
all the love those families have to offer over something so minute -simple discrimination is what this is really all about. Until we can open our eyes as a people and realize the constraints we blindly put upon ourselves, we will continue to fall short of our full potential.