n Would it be better for a child to grow up without having parents who love and care for them regardless of sexual orientation, or to live in an environment where they would otherwise feel unloved and unwanted? There is no question that growing up in a stable household with permanent role models is healthier for children.
Whether gay adoption is economical or not, it provides children with a family and home that have reached out to love and care for them. That should say something about a person’s character.
I feel it necessary to point out that Matthew Sullivan (“Gay adoption is wrong,” April 1, pg. 10) blatantly contradicts himself. He states, “Sometimes a child would be better off being raised by gay parents,” and “homosexuals must be respected as people.” Directly after those comments, Mr. Sullivan states that gay parents are not fit to raise children due to the “gay” influence they would have on the child. This comment obviously reflects Mr. Sullivan’s disrespect for a minority of people and ignorance on what being gay constitutes.
Maybe parents who exhibit abusive, violent, addictive, unhealthy or mentally unstable behavior would make better role models because they are heterosexual. They would not pose the threat of a child being more likely to “choose” to be gay. A child may be gay regardless of their upbringing (just look at gay children of conservative families, i.e. Dick Cheney). Gay parents would just support them rather than suppress them like some straight parents might. It’s not an issue of parents making them gay, but supporting their child’s natural characteristics.
I will not deny that these traits can also be displayed in same-sex households, but then there is an equal risk. Personally, I’d rather live in a stable two-parent loving household with gay parents than be exposed to physical, emotional or verbal abuse I might find with straight parents.
Why deprive people who want to provide a child with a life filled with love, care and full support, homosexual or not? Any couple that wants to provide a better life for children in our world deserves praise and should be allowed to do so – regardless of sexual orientation. Children being raised by homophobic heterosexual parents who think being gay is immoral and unnatural provide a role model that promotes inequality, bigotry and hatred. And here in America, I thought we were trying to overcome prejudice, not endorse it.
Lindsay Miller
CAS ’07
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