In the last few years, there has been sharp reaction from the members of the public, human rights movements, and government agencies on whether lesbian and same-sex couples should be allowed to form their families by adopting children or not. This topic remains controversial in the contemporary society, despite the number of children adopted by lesbian and same-sex couples keeps on increasing. Researchers articulate that the number of children under custody and care of lesbian and same-sex couples stand at six to thirteen million globally. It is presumed that this number will increase significantly when other states allow lesbian and same-sex couples adopt children.
Currently, thousands of children do not have permanent homes and they live as street children because many states are experiencing a shortage of adoptive parents. However, there are many same-sex couples wishing to adopt and provide parental care for these children, but they prohibited by the law. Despite this shortfall, more than twenty-one states have prioritized rights of children and provided same-sex couples with second-adoption rights; in case one of the legal parents dies or becomes incapacitated (America Liberties Civil Union,1).
Over the years, lesbian and same-sex couples have been denied right of adopting children based on their sexual orientation. Many people hold the view that children raised by same-sex couples are disadvantaged because they do not embrace societal values and morals, which define humanity. However, such arguments hold no truth because research has equivocal affirm that children raised and adopted by lesbian and same-sex couples develop and grow normally like children raised by heterosexual parents. Research has ruled out that there is no child adopted by lesbian and same-sex parents that shows signs of abnormalities and maladjustments because of their parents’ sexual orientation (Stein, 196). In other words, a child needs a favorable, loving, and caring home environment to develop effectively and lesbian and same-sex couples provide these conditions. Based on this assertion, children adopted by lesbian and same-sex couples are not disadvantaged because they brought up in a loving, caring and home environment like those raised by heterosexual parents.
The state should not prohibit children without homes from being adopted by lesbian and same-sex couples because it will deny them rights of having people they can acknowledge as their parent, escalate crime rate, lower morality of the society and escalate suffering of homeless children in the community. The state should allow lesbian and same-sex couples adopt homeless children because they will raise them normally by providing parental love and care. Denying homeless children this right will worsen the situation and increase crime rate because they will indulge in deviant behaviors such as smoking, drug trafficking, robbery and stealing; which lower morality of the society. Therefore, the government should not prohibit lesbian and same-sex coupled from adopting destitute children.
As a child, I will prefer being raised by same-sex couples than being in an institutional setting. In most cases, children raised in institutional care system undergo numerous challenges because they lack qualified fostering parents, who can provide love and care for the children. However, a child will not experience such challenges because same-sex coupled will provide love, care, and favorable environment for him/ her to develop effectively.
Works cited
America Liberties Civil Union. "Overview of Lesbian and Gay Parenting, Adoption and Foster Care." ACLU of Utah. Version 1. ACLU of Utah, 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 13 June 2013. <http://www.acluutah.org/dcfsfacts.htm>.
Stein, Marc. Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.
