Adoption and Gays: An Unbalanced Relationship

Gay adoptions have been an issue for the past ten years of America’s history, especially in states such as California, Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts, where percentages of gay population are high. During these recent years, citizens have become more and more aware of this issue, and many have begun to take a stance. While this issue is deeply engraved with emotional controversy, we mustn’t use the age old “straights vs. gays” mindset, which may influence our judgment on this important topic. Yes, there is a shortage of adoptive parents, a “family” whether gay or strait is better than the foster-care system. Yes, barring gay men and lesbians from becoming “parents” is sexual discrimination.  Yes, many gay couples from relationships that are more stable than a large portion of marriages that bind a woman and a man, thus giving the child a more secure home. But everything, everything, comes down to the child. And when the child does not grow up in a balanced home, he or she is emotionally less stable due to teasing, more likely to be gay, males without a father underachieve due to lack of discipline and support, and the child’s future as an adult is more likely to be less successful, because of lack of preparation in the natural world, all of which all can be traced back to childhood. 

Those who propose the idea that baring gay adoptions is discrimination based on sexual orientation do have a legitimate argument. “In Roomer v. Evans,1887 the Supreme Court struck down a state constitutional amendment which both overturned local ordinances prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals, lesbians or bisexuals, and prohibited any state or local governmental action to either remedy discrimination or to grant preferences based on sexual orientation.’” Nobody is saying that they are wrong in their judgment. Yet it isn’t about the adopter, it’s about the adoptee. The child’s emotional status, now already ruffled and messed due to being taken into an already unfamiliar situation (from the shelter to the home), is compounded upon the fact that his or her parents are even more unfamiliar and different than others, leading to an emotional debacle.

One is also inclined to state the fact of separation of church and state. “Separation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religious institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other.”² Of course this is also a legitimate argument, yet it is neigh impossible to disregard the facts. We live in a country dominated by Christian teachings. Our very nation was founded on Puritan ideology. Our values remain deeply entrenched in Christian teaching. “Honor thy father and mother” as described by the Ten Commandments. Recently a doctrine given by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (A prominent Catholic committee) has deemed that funds to Catholic foster care systems will be drained if they allow homosexuals or lesbians to adopt. If Roman Catholic adoption agencies allow gay couples to adopt, funds will decrease, putting the children in worse conditions than already. Thus the number of adopted children will inevitably decline, leaving more in the care system. Ironically, most adopted kids grow up in Roman Catholic foster houses. To be raised by two homosexuals would go directly against the teaching that they have come to know and embrace (fifth commandment). Would this not be a little…spiritually confusing?