by Blind Ambition

Created on: June 30, 2007   Last Updated: December 08, 2010

It is entirely appropriate.
Is it fair to deny a child loving want-to-be-parents who are actively fighting for the right to be parents? Before they even have a child, their dedication is already shining through.

Our foster-care system is already over-burdened. Loving, capable parents should not be turned away. Many children these days are raised in what to the past would have been an atypical household. But with children being born out of wedlock and divorces and remarriages, many children grow up in multiple parent environments where they may have two fathers and one mom, or simply one father and no mom, and the distribution of the genders and numbers of their parents does not effect the love and care they are shown.

A two parent household where both parents happen to be of the same gender is a perfectly healthy environment for children to grow up in. Children of gay parents are not more likely to be gay than children of straight parents. Gay parents are capable of raising straight children just as straight parents are capable of raising gay children. Children of gay parents are more likely to face harassment based on their parent's relationship, but they are not more likely to face harassment in general. Often, homophobia based harassment could be prevented if the parents of their peers didn't instill homophobic values in their children. Children will be teased no matter what. If it isn't about their parents both being men, it may be about their haircut or the way they dress or what toys they like to play with.

The only difference in children of gay as opposed to children of straight parents suggested by research so far states that children of gay parents seem less likely to feel constricted by the traditional male/female gender roles. While the finding is still preliminary, I find this a very positive, rather than negative, difference. Adopted children of gay parents will have the unique experience of being able to see the ridiculousness of homophobia, and will grow up knowing that their parents love them and fought for their right to be that child's parents. That child will know they are treasured and loved. Don't they deserve that kind of family?

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