So, as is well known, a very conteroversial topic in America (and even on this site) is Gay marriage. Should gay and lesbian people get married? Can it be Adam and Steve or just Adam and Eve? (Sorry, that was a little off color, but you do get my point dontcha.) Either way. Now I want to bring an even more touchy subject up, becasue quite honestly I'm searching for some knowledge from the opinions of some people that may or may not know more than me on this subject. Okay. Again this subject deals with Gay relationships, but this time it's dealing with a third party. should Gay people be allowed to adopt? Right now I'm thinking no, because I'm currently pondering that if a child is raised in a homosexual home, then they will more likely have a tendency to be homosexual. In other words it will be nurture over nature because they'll be seeing that in their home. And I believe that if someone is going to be gay it should be nature over nurture. Also, If a child is raised in a gay home, will they be ostrisized by the other students. Will it effect it's relationships with it's peers because some of the parents of students maybe against homosexuallity? At the same time, I understand that many children up for adoption have come from some very brutal backgrounds. so maybe we should just throw out the gay factor and the factor that they may be shunned at school, and put them into a home environment that will be more loving then they experienced in the past. I don't know how to feel. There's pros and cons that I can see in each. Please, give me some insight, show me somemore pros and cons. I really don't know how to feel. Help me out. Show me what generally the rest of you think.
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"Right now I'm thinking no, because I'm currently pondering that if a child is raised in a homosexual home, then they will more likely have a tendency to be homosexual."
Then why are there homosexuals who were raised in heterosexual houses?
Example, my dad, obviously straight. His brother, gay as can be.
"-bah!! Pardon the "bah!" I feel several "bahs!", but out of courtesy I only say one."
H.P. Lovecraft
The American Psychological Association strongly disagrees with you.
My Blog
"We cannot redeem evil, we must combat it." -- Jean Paul Sartre
I stated both sides, and stated confusion, so which part are they disagreeing to?
Now either post evidence to back up your assertions or stop wasting bandwidth.
My Blog
"We cannot redeem evil, we must combat it." -- Jean Paul Sartre
Let's just say I was pondering out loud. Because I find it a truly controversial topic in my own mind and I though I said no, I also said that I have reason to feel the other way. So I want to know the friendly, unbiased (or not) opinions of others, I think it will help me make a final decision on how I myself should feel. So go ahead, here's my challenge, all of you, sway me.
Straight people raise gay kids all the time. A child being raised by a gay couple is no more or less likely to be gay. However, I think it's far more likely that IF a gay couple raised a child who turned out to be gay, that child would feel a lot more safe and accepted. And that doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. The fear of rejection would probably be a lot smaller than for a kid who has been raised to think God smites gay people with flaming bolts of lightning.
Adopting couples (gay or straight) should be held to standards -- standards like "You have to love and nurture this kid" and "Don't abuse or neglect your child". I see no reason why a same sex couple in a loving and committed relationship would be unable to do this. Plus, adopting a child is a long and arduous process that involves lots of time and lots of money. Couples who AREN'T in at a stable place in their life aren't super likely to attempt adoption.
And as for children dealing with teasing/ostracizing from school peers, well, that's pretty much ALWAYS going to happen at some point for every single person, period. Kids growing up with same-sex parents probably do have moments here and there when they just wish they were like everybody else -- just like kids with divorced parents, or biracial parents, or kids with red hair or thick glasses, or kids who are too tall, too short, too fat, too thin. The fact is teasing and harassment isn't the fault of the kid with a big nose or the kid who has two moms. It's the fault of the bully, of the person DOING the teasing, and that usually comes from hate-filled views they're being taught at home.
...your concerns are completely without merit. I would suggest that you review the American Psychological Association's extensive research summary on the subject of Lesbian & Gay Parenting...
"As this summary will show, the results of existing research comparing lesbian and gay parents to heterosexual parents and children of lesbian and gay parents to children of heterosexual parents are quite clear: Common stereotypes are not supported by the data...Beliefs that lesbian and gay adults are not fit parents likewise have no empirical foundation...The results of some studies suggest that lesbian mothers' and gay fathers' parenting skills may be superior to those of matched heterosexual couples...In all studies, the great majority of offspring of both lesbian mothers and gay fathers described themselves as heterosexual. Taken together, the data do not suggest elevated rates of homosexuality among the offspring of lesbian or gay parents...Results of research to date suggest that children of lesbian and gay parents have positive relationships with peers and that their relationships with adults of both sexes are also satisfactory. The picture of lesbian mothers' children that emerges is one of general engagement in social life with peers, with fathers, with grandparents, and with mothers' adult friends-both male and female, both heterosexual and homosexual. Fears about children of lesbians and gay men being sexually abused by adults, ostracized by peers, or isolated in single-sex lesbian or gay communities have received no support from the results of existing research...In summary, 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. 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. 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."
There really is no good excuse in this day and age for clinging to outdated and frankly ignorant stereotypes about gay and lesbian people.
percivale
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