LGBT parenting
There are millions of children in the world without parents and waiting for someone to adopt and secure them by creating a loving atmosphere. However, there are also many people who are waiting for this moment, yet, they are not allowed to do it because of their sexual orientation. There is no reason that a gay couple should not be allowed to adopt a child, considering the number of children without families and the fact that they are as caring and loving as any other two human beings are.
To begin with, UNICEF differentiates two types of orphans; the ones that have lost both parents and the others that have lost a father but have a surviving mother or have lost their mother but have a surviving father. The two types altogether count up to 132 million. Among them 13 million have lost both parents (UNICEF, 2015). As the statistics show, there are millions of children in the world in need of a caring and loving parent, family.
Families in the 21st century come in all shapes and sizes. Anyone who is able to meet the requirements of being a loving parent deserves to become a parent, despite their sexual preferences. Considering the child, being adopted by a caring family is a better alternative than entering an orphanage. Children living in institutions without parents are reported to perform poorly on intelligence tests and to be slow learners with specific difficulties in language and social development, in comparison to children with foster parents (Browne, 2009).
There is no evidence to suggest that lesbian women or gay men are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of lesbian women or gay men is compromised relative to that among offspring of heterosexual parents (Amato, 2012). Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents (Patterson, 2005). Indeed, the evidence to date suggests that home environments provided by lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children's psychosocial growth (APA, 2005). Researches and studies make an important contribution to our understanding of how a variety of childhood family environments are related to outcomes among young adult offspring. But these findings – and for that matter, any social research findings – should not be used to restrict the civil rights of any group of individuals (Amato, 2012).
In conclusion, everyone deserves a complete and happy life to live. It is necessary to treat gay people the same as heterosexual people are treated. There should be absolutely no discrimination against them and they should have the same rights that also include the ability to adopt children.
References
Amato, Paul R. (2012), The well-being of children with gay and lesbian parents. Social Science Research, http://www.baylorisr.org/wp-content/uploads/Amato.pdf
American Psychological Association (2005), Lesbian & Gay Parenting. http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting-full.pdf
Browne, Kevin (2009), The Risk of Harm to Young Children in Institutional Care. http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/docs/The_Risk_of_Harm_1.pdf
UNICEF (2015), Orphans.
No comments:
Post a Comment