Spasmodic Contemplations

The Right to Adopt

This was written in response to the question: "Should homosexual couples be allowed to adopt?" An article on this can be found through a link on the Acceptance is the Cure forum (sorry, don't have the link right off hand). These are only my opinions, and if you don't like the controversial material within, don't read it.


What can I say? I read the article, and I totally agree. Why shouldn't gay/lesbian couples be allowed to adopt? What right is it of anyone to deny so many homeless children a good home? It seems to me that people who say that it is wrong for homosexuals to have children have not thought very much about what kind of situations are out there. Say for instance, a child is born whose mother is a drugatic, a prostitute, and just not really capable of taking care of children. Is it still okay for her to keep the child if she is straight? Things like this happen all the time, and yet you don't see nearly as much controversy over that stuff. "Put the kid up for adoption so that he/she can have a better life." Okay, so let's say that the mother did that, and that a good, honest, hard-working, loving, homosexual couple says they are interested in adopting and that it seems that no one else is. Is it right that that child be denied a good home just because the one interested couple was gay? Should that child be destined to live in an orphanage or whatever for the rest of his or her life? I don't think so. When I look at it from an adoptee's perspective (mine), I would rather have been raised in a good decent home than trying to survive in the streets or being completely ignored in some orphanage. And what if there is a straight couple and a homosexual couple who are interested in the same child? (Assume they are the only 2 couples interested.) And let's say that the straight couple tends to beat their children; it's just that human services never found out...so their record is clean so to speak. And let's say that the homosexual couple is very loving, afffectionate, and can provide a good, nurturuing home to the child. Is it right that the straight couple be given custody simply because the only other couple was a gay couple? Hopefully, you will say no, because if you don't, then you need to try to empathize with the child a little more. How would you like to have the crap beat out of you when there was another possible home that you could have gone to?

Honestly, though, I can see where there is an argument over this. If people are not saying it gay adoptions are wrong because of religious reasons or whatever, they're saying that the child will be harassed by others because of his/her parents. I totally agree with this. It is a sick, sad world out there, and people are not nice. And even though it is not the child's fault what his/her parents' sexual preference is, the child will still face a lot of unjust persecution. So, though I think gay adoptions should be allowed, I also think that those couples interested in adopting should seriously think about what they are going to do. Do they want to watch their child come home in tears every day from school because of the cruelty of the other children? Are they willing to put up with the scournful looks, the hateful remarks, the discrimination that they and their child will face when seen in public? Are they willing to put their child through all that? I ask these same questions to mixed couples. Though you can't help who you fall in love with, you can control the fate of your children.

So in my opinion, no, it is not okay to deny homosexual couples the right to adopt children. That is like denying a straight couple the right to bear children. Gays and lesbians are just like straights, only with a different sexual preference. They fall in love (or lust) with people of the same sex just like any heterosexual would with a person of the opposite sex; perhaps it just comes naturally...I don't know. But anyways...I just think that gay/lesbian couples should seriously take into consideration what they would be putting their child/children through, that's all.