Scanned by CamScanner Scanned by CamScanner LEGALIZATION OF SAME SEX ADOPTION PAGE 1 LEGALIZATION OF SAME SEX ADOPTION PAGE 9 Introduction Equality in marriage has not turned into equality in adoption for gay couples in United States. In their quest to gain this legal right the gay couple believes that they will have won the first step towards having their families being recognized by law. Adoption is a concept that has been in existence with the American society for a long time, but it is only recently that we have started to hear about the concept of gay adoption (Ritter, 2010). The society is made up of many orphaned children; they live under pathetic conditions as homeless people or in orphanages. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who are willing to take care of these children in a family set up, people have children of their own, and others don’t want to get children and therefore they don’t see any reason to adopt. Yet there could be a solution to this problem in the form of gay couples. Homosexuals would have loved to have children through adoption means, yet this has been made impossible due to the fact that this is a practice that is illegal in most states in United States. It is not right for the constitution to provide these people with the right to get married and then deny them the right to access what makes a family whole; children. This is an unconstitutional right and gay parents should be allowed the right to adopt children as long as they have the capacity to take care of the children given to them by the authorities (Ritter, 2010). Definition of Terms Adoption; this is defined as a legal process in the law which gives rights of a parent to adoptive parents. It is all about taking a child into a family as a permanent member of that family Same-sex adoption; this is a new concept where people of the same sex united in marriage are given the chance to exercise parental responsibilities on an adopted child Legalization requirements; this refers to the legal merits that makes an act constitutional. There are processes that must be followed in order to make a certain act constitutional. Same Sex Adoption Gay parent adoption as defined above has elicited legal issues that are very complex and that involve several considerations. All over the world, there are only 14 states that have managed to allow gay couples to legally adopt. As the case is in United States, there are states that allow gay couples to adopt yet they have not been able to come up with national laws which permit the practice. There are few states in US that prohibit gay adoption while others have no straight forward laws on the issue. There are few countries such as Iceland and Finland which allows a single partner from a gay union to adopt the biological child of the other. There are other countries in which a gay individual can petition the court to allow him/her to adopt, but they are not allowed to do so as a couple (Reed, 2013)..

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LEGALIZATION OF SAME SEX ADOPTION PAGE 1
LEGALIZATION OF SAME SEX ADOPTION PAGE 9
Introduction
Equality in marriage has not turned into equality in adoption for
gay couples in United States. In their quest to gain this legal
right the gay couple believes that they will have won the first
step towards having their families being recognized by law.
Adoption is a concept that has been in existence with the
American society for a long time, but it is only recently that we
have started to hear about the concept of gay adoption (Ritter,
2010). The society is made up of many orphaned children; they
live under pathetic conditions as homeless people or in
orphanages. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who are
willing to take care of these children in a family set up, people
have children of their own, and others don’t want to get
children and therefore they don’t see any reason to adopt. Yet
there could be a solution to this problem in the form of gay
couples.
Homosexuals would have loved to have children through
adoption means, yet this has been made impossible due to the
fact that this is a practice that is illegal in most states in United
States. It is not right for the constitution to provide these people

2. with the right to get married and then deny them the right to
access what makes a family whole; children. This is an
unconstitutional right and gay parents should be allowed the
right to adopt children as long as they have the capacity to take
care of the children given to them by the authorities (Ritter,
2010).
Definition of Terms
Adoption; this is defined as a legal process in the law which
gives rights of a parent to adoptive parents. It is all about taking
a child into a family as a permanent member of that family
Same-sex adoption; this is a new concept where people of the
same sex united in marriage are given the chance to exercise
parental responsibilities on an adopted child
Legalization requirements; this refers to the legal merits that
makes an act constitutional. There are processes that must be
followed in order to make a certain act constitutional.
Same Sex Adoption
Gay parent adoption as defined above has elicited legal issues
that are very complex and that involve several considerations.
All over the world, there are only 14 states that have managed
to allow gay couples to legally adopt. As the case is in United
States, there are states that allow gay couples to adopt yet they
have not been able to come up with national laws which permit
the practice. There are few states in US that prohibit gay
adoption while others have no straight forward laws on the
issue. There are few countries such as Iceland and Finland
which allows a single partner from a gay union to adopt the
biological child of the other.
There are other countries in which a gay individual can petition

3. the court to allow him/her to adopt, but they are not allowed to
do so as a couple (Reed, 2013). In Africa, the issue of gay
marriage is illegal and therefore there is no such jurisdiction
which can listen to issues of gay adoption. It is quite unfair
when gay couples have to move from one area that they feel is
hostile to their bid to adopt to another which allows one to
adopt. It is a huge hustle that can be avoided through coming up
with laws that will help then adopt wherever they are.
The reasons as to why the concept of same sex marriage has
been illegalized are many apart from the fact that there are
many people who object to the concept. There are those who
would say that it is unnatural practice and it would end up
creating children who are psychologically corrupt, and others
oppose the concept on the basis of their religious belief. There
are several states in United States which have acted with an
open mind when it comes to the concept of gay adoption, but
there are other states which have taken a tough stance on the
issue and the concept is still illegal.
Psychologist Maier Bill opined that children in most of the
foster care are already going through hard times, the emotional
and psychological torture is too much for them, and it is
believed that the best way to help these children is through
finding a means through which they can be taken into a real
family care. There are researches carried out which have
indicated that gay couples have done well in terms of raising
their children, by allowing more gay couple to be able to adopt
means that the states would have increased the number of
families with the ability to take care of children in the foster
care (Appell, 2001). Children under foster care would not object
to having a stable gay parent compare to the fact that they are
moved around from one foster family to another. The practice of
foster shuffle means that a child can be moved around quite
often before they turn the age of majority. This is one element
of instability in a child’s life
Data indicates that there are several children who are taken into

4. foster care each year. There are almost half a million children
under foster care in the United States. From the above numbers,
each and every child is eligible for adoption (Appell, 2001).
When we deny gay couples a chance to get a child out of that
huge number is being generally unfair, denying the child and
the gay parents a right to live as a union is not only against the
constitution but also heavily heartbreaking. Considering that
there are several places where gay parents are taking care of
children as foster parents, moving them into real parents is just
a step that the states need to take into consideration.
Catholic as a religion is against the practice of gay adoption,
the church has a belief that it is not proper for a child to grow
up with gay parents (Dugmore & Cocker, 2008).The argument is
that in gay relationships the child grows under a single sex, and
would lack the care of a father or a mother. Their view does
make sense; that a child needs to grow up with a mother and
father role model. To think in the line of the church would mean
that gay couples are people who live in isolation. They too have
families, with people of mixed gender; both male and female
can be found from the extended family. Through them the
children can learn what could have been taught by a father or a
mother.
Adoption process should not be based on sexual orientation,
basing the criteria on sexual orientation would allow the society
to be mean on the concept of rational thinking. The three main
issues that should dictate whether one is legible to adopt should
include care, devotion and family stability. There is a
documented case of Danny Stewart who found a child in a
subway and took it to the relevant authorities. The case was
called and he was asked to testify by the judge, at this point he
was asked whether there was any chance that he would want to
adopt the child, and he said yes, in unlikely turn of events he
was gay and was married to Peter Mercurio (Montero, 2014).

5. They were able to adopt the child. In United States, the prisons
are full of people who were raised under the foster care, they
were raised under the environment of the so called straight
people yet they did not turn out as great as the society would
have anticipated (Montero, 2014). What really matters is the
fact that the parent can be able to provide the child with the
needed care.
The streets are full of untrained psychologists who have
declared that if children are raised by gay couple they will end
up with huge psychological damage. The real psychologists who
have done proper research would argue contrary to the above
notion. According to Bryan Samuels research has shown that
putting children under care of gay couple does not have any risk
beyond putting the same children under heterosexual care
(Reed, 2013).
Children who come out of foster families are able to do well
when placed under the heterosexual or gay couples. It is right
that we have to take into consideration the fact that such
children could face certain prejudice from their peers, but this
is a situation that is brought about by the bigger picture of how
the society perceive the gay couples and then pass it unto their
young children.
The society has put much attention on matters of gay people,
yet whatever happens to heterosexuals is never a concern of the
gay (Hicks, 2013). As a matter of fact, gay parents should be
worried about the influence of society on the children that they
would have adopted; this is due to the fact that prejudice will
paint this relationship as a rarity and the adopted child will
always be questioned on how they feel. This could be different
perhaps if more gay people could have been allowed to adopt so
that it does not become a unique issue when a gay couple
adopts.

6. When a small girl is being teased by the fact that her parents are
gay or lesbian paints the society as a field made up of
judgmental herders. The young children growing up gets most
their attitude from people whom they are growing up with,
perhaps the level of labeling among the young children adopted
by gays would reduce if most of the parents would start to see
gays as people with equal rights operating under their own
setting.
It is beyond my understanding how the United States can have
laws that allow gay people to marry and still fail to create laws
that can allow the said families complete. When gay people are
given the right to come into a union just like the heterosexuals,
it means that they should be given the same rights as the
heterosexuals in all aspects (Hicks, 2013). The country does
not need to pretend, if it is deemed proper to ban gay marriages,
the intention could have been shown from the start and no gay
union should have been made legal.
African countries have been honest with themselves, and they
have ensured that gay marriages are illegal. It has saved them
the heart ache of having to deliberate whether the same people
they have afforded the right to marry have the right to have
children. Common knowledge dictates that there is no way gay
couples can have children the natural way and therefore the
only way they will be at a position to enjoy the privilege is
through adoption (Gibson, 2014).
Having gone through most of the points against the legalization
of gay adoption, there is no evidence based on fact which
justifies this form of discrimination. Science has indicated that
children who are raised under gay union are not at any point or
instance worse off compared to those raised through
heterosexual parents. The courts in Florida did understand in
2010 that there wasn’t any factual reason for the ban, and the
law was altered to allow the gay couples to adopt children of
their own.

7. Whenever there is no science to prove that is right to
discriminate against another individual, such differential
treatment ought to be removed (Hicks, 2013). This is how it
will be easy for the society to create the highly needed
democratic space. Gagging some people out of sheer political or
religious alignment should never stand in law. The law is all
about being factual when making decisions that are important
about life.
Conclusion
When we allow more gays to adopt would mean that the state
governments are opening up more doors for children out of
foster care into families. Every citizen has a right to be a
parent, and not allowing gay couples to adopt children is one
way through which this right is being infringed into. Just like
any other parent, gay couples are effective in taking care of the
child as long as there is commitment as well as resources that
would make it possible. Through legalization of gay adoption
we will rip the benefit as the society.
There will be homes with loving parents where the young ones
can go to and feel accepted just like their peers born of
heterosexual parents. This is a means through the government
will be able to lower cases of delinquent juveniles which
usually comes up due to poor conditions that they go through
while under foster care. For a child who is under the harsh
condition of a foster care, having gay loving parents would be a
bonus that they would accept with open arms. Gay adoption is a
solution to some of the social issues that the society faces; it
means that we have to ensure that we make use of this
opportunity while it lasts.
References
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