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Within this century, there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding homosexuals. The major controversy right now concerns gay marriages or unions. If we were to look one step further, however, we would see that there is also a smaller controversy on homosexual couples and adoption. Our political parties cover much concerning marriage, but children aren’t as much of a concern on the political agendas as far as adoption goes. At this point in time, adoption by homosexual couples is granted on a state-by-state basis. Much of the legislation is unclear on joint adoption, but does allow single GLBT adoption (About.com). Why is it that the legislation is still so unclear?

Julie Mooney-Somers and Susan Golombok (2000) discussed a few arguments against gay adoptions in their 2000 article Children of lesbian mothers: from the 1970s to the new Millennium. They outlined three specific concerns of American citizens, most concerning the psychological welfare of growing children. Mooney-Somers and Golombok focused their studies on the concerns of the children with lesbian mothers experiences social disapproval, psychological problems later in life, social competence and behavior adjustment, and gender identity confusion and sexual orientation. In each study they found that there was no difference between children raised by lesbian mothers and children raised by heterosexual mothers. In fact, on the concern of sexual orientation Mooney-Somers and Golombok found that “the large majority (92%) of young adults raised by lesbian mothers identified as heterosexual” (2000: 124).

With the evidence to go against the arguments for prohibiting adoption, there is still the concern of the amount of children in foster care and state custody. According to Kenneth Jost (1991), foster care is in great need of assistance. In Jost’s article Foster Care Crisis: Experts stress need for more programs aimed at keeping families together, he shows that there is a significant increase in the number of children in the foster care system and a decrease in the amount of foster parents. The rates of children in foster care have risen from 270,000 to 400,000 and the rates of foster parents has dropped from 134,000 to 100,000 in just a decade. In his article and his graphs, Jost shows that this trend will most likely continue. With only 8% of foster children being adopted, this calls for some serious concerns.

Jost also states reasons behind this trend. First, he states that the increase of children in childcare is due to better reporting of child abuse or neglect in the homes. Second, there is an increase in the amount of children who are born into poverty and homelessness. Third, there is an increase in the number of children born to teenage girls.

Jost explains the reasons behind the declining rate of foster parents and the difficulty of foster children being adopted, as well. Foster parents receive too little payment to care for children properly, especially when most of the children already have some sort of psychological or behavioral issue. Also, foster care agencies receive a nominal profit from the government by keeping children in the foster care system.

Alan S. Yang (1997) describes his results of poll-trends on the attitudes towards homosexuality and briefly describes attitudes towards homosexual adoptions. Yang’s poll indicated that from 1992 to 1994, trends have not differed much. The attitudes have remained constant at 60-68 percent opposing homosexual couples adopting.

I recently ran a study on attitudes towards homosexual adoption on the University of Southern Indiana campus and I expect to find similar results to Yang’s polls. In my study, I had my participants read one of three vignettes depicting a couple looking to adopt a 5-year-old child from the custody of the state. Each vignette was exactly the same except for the names of the couples. In the first vignette, the couple was made to appear heterosexual with the names ‘John’ and ‘Kim’. The second vignette, the couple was made to appear as a lesbian couple with the names ‘Jane’ and ‘Kim’. The third vignette used the names ‘John’ and ‘Ken’ to make the couple appear as gay.

I believe adoption to be an important issue so that we can get the children in foster care out into more stable families. In my studies as a psychology student, I have seen that stability of family helps children to develop appropriately. Adoption provides a better opportunity for children who were born without and for children who have psychological or behavioral issues that otherwise will go uncared for while being a warden of the state. By allowing homosexual couples to adopt, more children of different nationalities, psychological developmental levels, and behavioral needs can be provided with the medical care, education, and love they need.
 

Where is Gay Adoption Legal? (200 cool . Retrieved March 30, 2008, from About, Inc: http://gaylife.about.com/od/gayparentingadoption/a/gaycoupleadopt_2.htm

Gillespie, Misty. 2008. “Attitudes on Adoption.” Unpublished.

Jost, Kenneth. 1991. “Foster Care Crisis: Experts stress the need for more programs aimed at keeping families together.” CQ Researcher Online.

Mooney-Somers, Julie and Susan Golombok. 2000. “Children of lesbian mothers: from the 1970s to the new Millennium.” Sexual and Relationship Therapy 15: 121-126.

Yang, Alan S. 1991. “The Polls-Trends: Attitudes Towards Homosexuality.” Public Opinion Quarterly 61:477-507.