Should Gays be Allowed to Adopt Children - Research Paper Example

They study. They work, and pay their taxes just as the heterosexuals do. There is no distinct quality that a heterosexual has that one would find missing in either a gay man or a lesbian. Gays and lesbians exhibit all the qualities that society feels should be observed. Qualities such as responsibility, ability to love, and trustworthiness et cetera. These are the qualities one should look at when deciding who is capable and who is not capable to adopt a child (Brodzinsky 165). Looking at sexuality is the same as looking at a person’s religion or political affiliation in order to determine their ability to adopt.

It is wrong. The public should accept that apart from their sexual orientation the gays and lesbians are equal in every way to heterosexuals. There is no reason to deny them their adoption rights. If, the society does deny them this right, it would blatantly be exhibiting discrimination to sexuality which would lead to a rise in discrimination (Jackson 84). This discrimination would be against race, religion, gender et cetera. These are the exact vices the society has been trying all along to eradicate.

In the United States alone, as of today only few states permit full legal adoption by the gays and lesbians with also a few states totally making it illegal for them to adopt. The other states are in a gray area. This is because the issue of adoption gets handled by the state courts which give their rulings also based on the state laws and depending on the judges and clerks. Some judges are liberal and permit these kinds of adoption whereas others are conservative hence do not allow for such adoptions to take place.

States that permit gay and lesbian adoptions include Indiana, New York, California, Maine, Illinois, Connecticut, Oregon and Arkansas. This adoption is illegal in states like Louisiana and Arkansas. Others like Utah allow for a single person to adopt. At the same time prohibiting adoption by people who are cohabiting i.e., not in a legally binding marriage. Since it does not allow gay marriages, it is practically making gay adoption hard to be successful (Brodzinsky 177). The antagonists view to laws that permit gay and lesbian adoption has little basis of argument to their case.

The group believes that a child would benefit more growing up with a father and mother figure both involved in their upbringing. The group goes ahead to claim to allow such adoptions to occur undermines the balanced way of child rearing. On the other hand, protagonists to this ideology believe that a child does not need a distinct male and female parent as their role models when growing up. They argue reiterate that what the child needs is love, care and compassion from both parents. Some studies have shown that a child who gets raised by gay and lesbian parents on issues that society cares about nowadays such as school performance, self-esteem, social adjustment et cetera seem to statistically indistinguishable from those children raised by married heterosexual couples (Brodzinsky 123).

The protagonists argue that promotion of the set up of a nuclear family should be avoided. This is because the world today is changing. This fact should encourage society not to cling onto the traditional family models of the past. The ideology of a nuclear family with a married father and mother is no longer the sole acceptable alternative. The reason countries are beginning to award legal rights to such couples is because they