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Loading ...Study: Gays important resource in reducing children in state care
09.25.2008 11:58am EDT
(New York City) A study released Thursday by a non-partisan adoption group says that states need to tap into the gay and lesbian community to reduce the number of children up for adoption.
There are about 129,000 children waiting to be adopted, the New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute said in the report.Many of these children are older and have special physical, mental health, and developmental challenges.
“[They] face gloomy prospects of succeeding in life without adoptive parents who can provide them with affection, nurture, support, and guidance,” the report said, noting that research shows that the 25,000 youths who “age out” of foster care each year are at high risk for a host of negative outcomes, including poverty, homelessness, incarceration and early parenthood.
The Institute study said that the pool of prospective adoptive parents must be increased and recommends that state laws and agency practices must be revised to become more welcoming of gay and lesbian applicants.
A number of states have banned same-sex marriage and several are moving to bar gay couples from adopting. Florida denies the right to adopt to all gays, whether in a relationship or not.
“State laws should serve children’s best interests by permitting joint and second-parent adoptions, and all states should give “full faith and credit” to adoptions legally completed in other states, without regard to the marital status or sexual orientation of the adoptive parents,” the report said.
It also recommends that qualifications, not sexual orientation, should be the guiding principle in finding homes for adoptive children.
“Agencies should assess their policies and practices to ensure that they are welcoming – in recruitment, training and post-placement services – for all qualified family resources who want to provide homes for children in foster care, including gay/lesbian individuals and couples,” the report said.
It cited a number of studies that found gay and lesbian adults are “very willing to adopt children with special needs and, as a demographic group, may be more willing to do so than heterosexual adults.”
The study further notes that data show that gay and lesbian adults provide a significant number of families for children who need foster or adoptive homes.
“Researchers estimate over 14,000 children live in lesbian- or gay-led foster families today, while at least 4 percent of all adopted children in the U.S. – about 65,000 – are being raised by gay and lesbian parents.” the institute said, citing earlier studies by the Urban Institute and the Williams Institute.
The institute said that although there is currently little research on the long-term outcomes for children adopted by gays or lesbians studies on children dating back 25 years conclude that children raised by gay and lesbian non-adoptive parents fare as well as those reared by heterosexual parents.
Now try to convince the religious right of the veracity of the findings of the research. This is another aspect of life in which religious fervor creates trouble for others,in this case, vulnerable children.
Tax the churches and use that money to support these kids. Im pretty sure they aren’t coming from gay parents.
Does this mean that loving Christian couples are unable to provide a supportive, nurturing, safe, loving home and environment for those that are considered physically, mentally and emotionally deficient?
But… but… but… what about their vaunted family values?
So let me get this right. We live in a society that would rather have a child homeless, hungry and abused living on the street, than with the love and care a gay couple could provide. There is something that does not sound right here.
I’ve long been of the opinion that conservatives actually hate children, or at least children that are born outside of “traditional” families. The attitude seems to be that the sins of the parents are rightfully put onto the children.
So what if there are children waiting for adoption? Never mind how many more there’d be if abortion were illegal. If there’s not enough proper heterosexual married couples to adopt these strays then that must be the fate God wants for them.
Gays and lesbians have long been an excellent pool of adoptive parents and in fact often show more commitment to their children than biological parents who see procreation as an entitlement.
This report is merely recognizing the obvious.
The plain truth is that fundamentalists do not care one bit about the welfare of children. When the UK was mulling over the idea of allowing gay people adoption rights, the RCC threatened to close their adoption services rather than set their hatred aside, although I think they quickly changed their tune when the government did not fold as expected and mentioned all the state funds they would lose. The only thing that matters to these people is money and power and when marketing hate is no longer profitable and their membership dwindles to almost nothing because people finally open their eyes, you will see changes in them.
We should let the children speak that have been in gay homes. No one thinks about the children. If religious people don’t want them in our homes then what is there solution? I hope that someone comes up with a way to let the children’s voices be heard on this matter.
As vannedan said, now try to convince the rabid fundies that this research is correct.
As Jon Stewart once pointed out when assessing the views of highly conservative members of Congress on the subject of gay parents: “two straight parents are better than one straight parent, who is better than one gay parent, which is better that two gay parents which is equivalent to a man f–king a turtle.”
No amount of fair, unbiased research will convince these people. And as a result gay parenting (birth-related or adoptive) will always run into legal opposition from the nutbar inhabitants of the right-wing kook pews.