My cousin Alexander is one of my best friends. He is adopted. Both his parents are men. Children like him, all over the world, need good homes; homes gays and lesbians can provide; homes our world is denying them. Laws in place in many countries allow individual gays to adopt, but not a single country in the world will let an openly gay couple adopt internationally. And that’s something that has to change. Gays and lesbians deserve the same rights as hetero-sexuals, and kids deserve the good homes they can provide.
You say America is the land of freedom? The land of rights for EVERYONE? The SAME rights? Then how come in places like France and Germany, reform has already begun head on? In fact, just this February, Germany’s highest court strengthened gay adoption rights to prevent individual people from being discriminated against based on sexual orientation. It isn’t full adoption and rights for gay couples, but it is a step forward. So much so, in fact, that Volker Beck, a senior lawmaker, called it “a breakthrough in equal treatment.” Oh, reform has begun in the USA. In fact, 17 states allow gay adoption. But that’s only 17 out of 50 states. And that’s not good enough.
On top of that, we are in no place to be discriminating. The fact is, 115,000 kids are up for adoption in the USA alone. And we just don’t have 115,000 straight families frolicking to adopt our children. In the words of Moria Weir, director of a family services department, “The reality is we really need foster and adoptive families, and it doesn’t matter what the relationship is. If they can provide a good, safe home for the kid, isn’t that what we want?”
“But gays can’t provide a traditional upbringing!” you say. SO WHAT?!? To heck with traditional! So much is untraditional these days. And guess what? Most of it is better! And, on top of that, Bryan Samuels, the commissioner for the Administration on Children, Youth and Families in the Obama White House, said, “The child welfare system has come to understand that placing a child with a gay or lesbian family is no greater risk than placing them with a hetero-sexual family.” At the end of the day, there is no difference to the kids. They are being loved and cared for. And that’s what matters.
It boils down to the fact that kids can’t tell the difference between a good home with a hetero-sexual family, and a good home provided by a same sex couple. Kids need the homes, gays can provide the homes, and we need to take a stand. Gays can provide good homes for these kids. And thats what counts.