An independent voice for ethical adoption
Why banning adoption by gays is unethical
Legislative proposals in 15 states aim to ban adoptions and/or foster
care by gay and lesbian families. On any given day, there are over
500,000 children in America’s foster care system and almost 120,000 of
those wait for permanent adoptive homes. There is a perennial shortage
of foster and adoptive homes. In states where there are more children
than homes, kids are housed in residential treatment facilities, group
homes, and hospitals. Yet, some lawmakers, and voters, would rather see
thousands more children in these non-permanent, non-family-like
environments than have them raised by loving foster and adoptive
families.
Opposing gay adoption, or adoption by single parents, is unethical for three reasons:
- Children are not tools to be used by politicians to gain votes;
they are human beings with complex needs that cannot be met in
institutional environments; - Every major medical, child welfare, and psychological association
supports gay parenting. There is no evidence that children raised by
gay parents are less emotionally healthy than their peers raised by
heterosexual parents; - No politician, religious leader, policy group or voter has the
right to malign or judge any family who actively supports America’s
children unless they have fostered or adopted themselves, and have
actively participated in recruiting 500,000 parents to care for each
and every child in American’s foster system. There should be no
discussion about “better” parents when so many children have no parents
at all.
Those who want to ban gay adoption and foster care need to stop
standing on the backs of America’s neediest children while they
pontificate about family values.
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