FAMILY IS FAMILY 1

Family is Family

Elizabeth Campbell

CORE 102: Research Paper

Radford University

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Abstract

This research paper argues for the acceptance and complete legalization of adoption and fostering of children by the LGBT community. Throughout, it evaluates, and disproves various theories and stereotypes that have, over time, been associated with this growing trend. This paper includes an extensive amount original thought supported with research and evidence found by experts to back it up. This evidence helps to disprove the negative connotations and myths given to the LGTB community for raising children in a non-traditional home and parental setting. This paper incorporates contrastive points of view on this specific issue allowing for a wider perspective on every side to the issue. With the research and evidence illegitimatizing the negative myths of LBGT adoption, the acceptance will increase.

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Through the act of adoption, thousands of children have experienced a loving family and home they otherwise wouldn’t have had. Any family that desires to adopt a child has to undergo an extensive background check and interviews by a social worker to be considered eligible. When social workers and adoption agencies are looking for a home and family for children who need to be adopted, they look for similarities in the person/couple looking to adopt in relation to the child, such as: race, skin color, religion, language, or cultural background. If these similarities are more present in a homosexual family rather than a traditional mom-dad family, should the child’s happiness and familiarity be put in jeopardy to maintain tradition? The person or couple attempting to adopt a child shouldn’t be discriminated against due to their sexual preference. Gay and Lesbian couples should be just as able to adopt children just as easily as their counterparts.
In the book titled Adoption by Lesbians and Gay Men, it discuses the history of adoption and how it has evolved into what it is today. In early American history, many orphan children would be sent to overcrowded almshouses or poorhouses until they reached a legal age. Over time, people began to open orphanages and later concluded that children raised in a more traditional home setting were more emotionally and developmentally healthy compared to the environment and standard of living in an orphanage. The book goes on to mention, “One in three lesbian couples and one in six gay men couples in the United States are raising
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children- either from previous marriage, surrogacy, or adoption and 41% of childless lesbians and 52% of gay men express they want to raise a child.” (Gates et al. 2007. P.54). These statistics are expected to increase over time, as they have been in the past 30 years. This ever-growing statistic requires more equal laws to allow the LGBT community adopt. In addition, in the viewpoint titled Gays and Lesbians Should be Allowed to adopt Children, the writer states, “Each year an estimated 120,000 children in foster care are eligible for adoption. Due to a severe shortage of families, nearly 20% of these children will not be placed.” (Ireland, 2012, Para.13). This statistic represents the large number of children that will then be placed in and out of foster care homes and state care, which can be, arguably, much more psychologically traumatizing than being placed in a loving home with same-sex parents.
In this day and age, America is well known for being the “land of the free” and thought of to be a place of opportunity for all walks of life. Refugees move here in search of a better life for themselves and their families based on the success stories that are frequently told to them by previous refugees. African Americans and women have long fought throughout our country’s history and earned the rights they deserved all along; the LGBT