Are Gays and Lesbians Appropriate to Adopt Children?

For many centuries now society has portrayed a "perfect" family to consist of a man and a woman raising their kids. Typically the man is working to bring the income to support the family and the woman is raising their kids and staying at home. In recent years the whole persona of a "perfect" family has done a 180 rotation on society, such as gay or lesbian couples wanting to adopt children, and many would say that the change has no effect on how a child is raised. Some believe if a gay or lesbian couple did adopt a child then most likely that child would turn out to be gay or lesbian which is completely outrageous considering that the gay couple most likely was raised by a man and woman. Being gay isn't a family tradition or a trait you can receive from a parent, it is just your sexual preference. Just because gays and lesbians sexual preference is different than a heterosexual couple doesn't mean they don't have dreams and the capability of raising a family and growing old with their significant other be it with a man or woman.

As long as the couple have the time, patience and love to take care of the child then they should be able to adopt just like Joan Biskupic states that " an overview of individual state statues pertaining to adoption by same-gender couples, citing an increased focus on creating "functional" parents- regardless of the gender(s) of the parents involved"(Biskupic, 2003). People hear about kids who were brought up by single parents who have double the responsibility and stress about bringing in the family income by themselves and how hard it is. So if there were a way to have two parents to raise a child then why would anyone disagree, just because it is two of parents of the same gender? Their sexual preference has nothing to do with their ability to raise children and have a family with the love of their life. Whether it be a man and a woman, or two women, or two men, or even a single parent doesn't define how much they would love that child and do anything to support that child. Biskupic (2003) reported that a local magistrate denied gay man custody of his two children from his ex wife because he lived with another man. They are strict to the point that he couldn't even visit his kids until he moved out of his boyfriend's house. How can people think it is okay that this guy couldn't see his children because of his sexual preference? Its so unsettling to know that people are okay with children being raised by a single parent when they could actually have up to three or even four caretakers.

"Gill had been a foster parent to seven children before that day, he said, and each had been adopted away by other families. He didn't want to say goodbye again (Fantz, 2010, para 4)." Reading this article was so upsetting because gay couples can be foster parents but they can't adopt the kids because of the law. Martin Gill