Gay Adoption Research Paper
Gay and Lesbian Adoption: What is the best interest of the child?
Most critics of gay adoption argue that if a child is brought up in a home with same sex parents that the child will be "ruined". However, most child welfare advocates do not agree, they feel that if these orphaned children are not allowed to be adopted by gay and lesbian parents, a lot of children who have been waiting for a very long time to be adopted and are in desperate need of a home, may have to wait even longer, unnecessarily. In 2003 alone there were 123,249 children waiting to be adopted in out-of-home care. While in foster care there were 47,696 children. Of all these children that await a family, should the law continually determine the fate of these children …show more content…
Specifically where gay and lesbian adoption is concerned, currently there are no uniform standards across states regarding adoption by gay men and lesbians. Florida is the only state that explicitly prohibits single and coupled gay men and lesbians from becoming adoptive parents. While gays and lesbians are able to become foster parents in Florida, it specifically bans them from becoming adoptive parents. The Florida law, enacted in 1977, states that: "No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual."( Retreived on March 27,2006 from http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20050112.html). There have been several, unsuccessful attempts in Florida to repeal the ban on gay adoption, most recently in March 2005 the ACLU attempted to petition the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, however the court declined to hear the challenge to the law. The court did not offer any explanation on why it refused to hear the …show more content…
(Rofes, E.E., 1983, Herdt, 1989)
Studies have shown that people with LGBT parents are more open-minded about a wide variety of things than people with straight parents. (Harris and Turner, 1985/86)
Daughters of lesbians have higher self-esteem than daughters of straight women. Sons are more caring and less aggressive. (Hoeffer, 1981)
On measures of psychosocial well-being, school functioning, and romantic relationships and behaviors, teens with same-sex parents are as well adjusted as their peers with opposite-sex parents. A more important predictor of teens' psychological and social adjustment is the quality of the relationships they have with their parents. (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 2004)
Most "problems" that kids of LGBT parents face actually stem from the challenges of dealing with divorce and the homophobia and transphobia in society rather then the sexual orientation or gender identity of their parents.
Today 60 percent of agencies accept applications and 40 percent knowingly place children with gay parents. Social workers, whether at religious, state, or private agencies, want only one thing: to find safe, good homes in a country with 500,000 children
Most critics of gay adoption argue that if a child is brought up in a home with same sex parents that the child will be "ruined". However, most child welfare advocates do not agree, they feel that if these orphaned children are not allowed to be adopted by gay and lesbian parents, a lot of children who have been waiting for a very long time to be adopted and are in desperate need of a home, may have to wait even longer, unnecessarily. In 2003 alone there were 123,249 children waiting to be adopted in out-of-home care. While in foster care there were 47,696 children. Of all these children that await a family, should the law continually determine the fate of these children …show more content…
Specifically where gay and lesbian adoption is concerned, currently there are no uniform standards across states regarding adoption by gay men and lesbians. Florida is the only state that explicitly prohibits single and coupled gay men and lesbians from becoming adoptive parents. While gays and lesbians are able to become foster parents in Florida, it specifically bans them from becoming adoptive parents. The Florida law, enacted in 1977, states that: "No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual."( Retreived on March 27,2006 from http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20050112.html). There have been several, unsuccessful attempts in Florida to repeal the ban on gay adoption, most recently in March 2005 the ACLU attempted to petition the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, however the court declined to hear the challenge to the law. The court did not offer any explanation on why it refused to hear the …show more content…
(Rofes, E.E., 1983, Herdt, 1989)
Studies have shown that people with LGBT parents are more open-minded about a wide variety of things than people with straight parents. (Harris and Turner, 1985/86)
Daughters of lesbians have higher self-esteem than daughters of straight women. Sons are more caring and less aggressive. (Hoeffer, 1981)
On measures of psychosocial well-being, school functioning, and romantic relationships and behaviors, teens with same-sex parents are as well adjusted as their peers with opposite-sex parents. A more important predictor of teens' psychological and social adjustment is the quality of the relationships they have with their parents. (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 2004)
Most "problems" that kids of LGBT parents face actually stem from the challenges of dealing with divorce and the homophobia and transphobia in society rather then the sexual orientation or gender identity of their parents.
Today 60 percent of agencies accept applications and 40 percent knowingly place children with gay parents. Social workers, whether at religious, state, or private agencies, want only one thing: to find safe, good homes in a country with 500,000 children