Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION

Same Sex Adoption Carla Rodriguez The University Of Texas at El Paso

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION Abstract

Overpopulation in foster care system has influenced the number of kids who age out when having reached 18 to 21 years. This has now become a nationwide issue for foster care children. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists have confronted the problem by demanding the government to allow them to adopt. Research will demonstrate to readers that they are just as fit to be parents as much as the heterosexual community. Society is concerned about the future of the kids, their psychological effects in the long run, and their educational needs; these are all issues being questioned when adopted by same sex couples.

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION Same Sex Adoption Introduction

Foster care systems have imposed laws that have made it difficult for more children to get adopted yearly. As a result these laws have impacted the future of the kids. Lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender activists (LGBT) are tired of injustices and have called for movements to help the kids. The LGBT community now confronts the government and demands the right to adopt. The adoption for the LGBT is a struggle to form their own families and to demonstrate that the kids will be benefited from this decision just as if heterosexuals were adopting them. Concerns on the Children Through out the nation many children in foster care wait for the day when they will be adopted. In our society kids will wait months, even years before receiving an adequate family. The percentages of children who are in foster care continue to rise. According to demographic theirs a total l51, 000, 000 children around the world that have been left orphaned (Child Info, 2011). In addition, the United States alone has a total of 400,540 children without any one to care for them (Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, 2011). Childrens Rights, Facts about aging out, inform readers that prior to be putting into foster care kids have suffered from maltreatment, physical and emotional damage, along with neglect. Once being put into foster care children also face additional factors that have been proven to affect them down the road. Factors about aging out, allow readers to know that half the kids in foster care will have chronic medical problems, children under five will have developmental delays and to add to all this eighty percent of the children will have emotional problems (Childrens Rights, 2011). Children

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION

who are in foster care have many problems besides those relating to their health; they must also learn to adapt to change when it comes to school. The effects of being placed in foster care can bring traumatic results in their education. Attendance rates, grade point average, and school behavior are problems faced by those children who have transferred schools constantly while being in foster care. As a consequence often times these children average much lower in subjects such as Math and English. A survey done where 20 to 25 students were analyzed discovered that foster care children range with average grades of high 60s (Finkelstein, 2000). Furthermore, these obstacles that have impacted their grades and have also lead them to lower high school graduating rates, lower educational performance and lower percentages to attend college when compared to non- foster children. These hardships on foster care children are solely due to the struggle of school mobility. Statistics on the amount of children who have been left without parents to raise them allow readers to understand how it would be beneficial for homosexual couples to adopt them. The higher the number of homosexual couples adopting will impact the percentage of kids in foster care. Same Sex Couples Vs. Different Sex Couples Through out the United States our nation has been divided into categories. Lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender have all formed a part of these classifications. The United States has nearly 650,000 same sex couples of which 114,100 are legally married (Gates, 2011). These same sex relationships have often led society to view them as unfit to raise children when compared to different sex couples or heterosexuals. Some anti-gay marriage arguments include that One of the first claims that seems to come up when gay marriage is discussed is that homosexual relations/relationships are not

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION

biologically natural. Same-sex couples cannot naturally produce children through their union. (Childrens Rights.(n.d.). This is a belief that has not be proven to be true, children are raised by the education given by their parents and it does not matter if they are the same marriage as longest the foundation of their education and support is the same. The belief is that the LGBT community is unfit to be parents because they lack the necessary qualifications. This also, has been proven to not be true, same sex couples are in fact qualified to be parents. Research has discovered that same sex couples that are women earn higher annual incomes, up to $9,000 thousand dollars more than those who are in different- sex relationships (Gates, 2011). In addition, same sex couples demonstrate to also have higher educational levels. The demographics below show that same sex couples have higher percentages when it comes to earing a college degree. They rank 13.9 % higher than heterosexuals.

Besides the importance of the educational background that a same sex couples must have when adopting, society is also concern on how these children will fare. It has been argued that parenting by same sex couples will create the children to differ in all aspects

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION

when compared to those children being raised by heterosexual parents. These controversies have led researchers to find that same sex parents are more thoughtful, motivated, and caring than heterosexuals (Dexler, 2012). In addition, the kids of same sex couples preform just as well in extracurricular activities and sports, these children have also been noticed to be more self aware and adequate to express their feelings allowing them to think more independently unlike the children of heterosexuals (Dexler, 2012). Same Sex Marriage Benefits It has been argued that not enough kids get adopted from foster care systems. However, it is the discriminatory language and difficulties of getting approved by state laws that have played a massive role on why adoption companies continue to turn down same sex couples. The boundaries among homosexuals and heterosexuals are broken when marriage laws in all states do not protect homosexuality. When same sex couples join in matrimony the number of kids getting adopted increase. In the United States only fifteen states are allowed same sex marriage. This law has impacted one quarter of the children in the United States, being adopted by homosexuals. (Masuma and Chow, 2013). Conclusion Even though society does not approved same sex marriage, they have no right to discriminate or decide whether same sex marriage couples are capable of raising a child. The proposed argument that same sex couples should be able to adopt has taken many steps in order to allow society to reconsider. The only way in which this proposal can be successful is if the plan can better interest the children. The research presented above has shown that sexual preference in same sex couples will not impact kids negatively but in

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION

fact will help them. Increased awareness in the lifestyle of the children in foster care has allowed readers to understand that being adopted by same sex couples is better than to never being adopted or even worse aging out.

Running Head: SAME SEX ADOPTION References Childrens Rights. (n.d.). Facts about aging out . Retrieved from http://www.childrensrights.org/issues-resources/foster-care/facts-about-aging-out/

Childrens Rights.(n.d.). Facts about foster care. Retrieved from http://www.childrensrights.org/issues-resources/foster-care/facts-about-foster-care/

Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. (n.d). Facts and Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.ccainstitute.org/why-we-do-it-/facts-and-statistics.html

Drexler, P. (2012) Psychology Today, Gay parents raising kids: how will they fare? Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201205/gayparents-raising-kids-how-will-they-fare Finkelstein, M. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/what keeps children.pdf Gates, G.(n.d).Same -sex and different sex couples in the American Community Survey, The William Institute, Retrieved from http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wpcontent/uploads/ACS-2013.pdf Moore, L. (2001). Points in defense of gay marriage. Retrieved from http://www.angelfire.com/home/leah/index.html

The Washington Post, (2013) Same sex-marriage status in the U.S. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/same-sex-marriage/

UNICEF. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://http://www.childinfo.org/hiv_aids_orphanestimates.php