Save Our Children

By: Bobbi Durance

In 2014, 518,000 children were in the U.S. foster care system. Most children are placed in foster care temporarily due to parental abuse or neglect. Let’s face it! The facts are here before our eyes, children are being abused,  neglected, and  abandoned everyday, unfortunately there are not enough foster homes or adoptive parents to go around. Recently I have been trying to fathom why Judges in some states are turning away gay couples who want to adopt. I am not sure how this is helping our children at all.

In the event that a gay couple wants to adopt a child they should not be denied that right. It should not be whether or not the adopting parent or parents are gay. As long as the adopting parents can provide a stable loving environment that is what should be measured with any person wanting to adopt.

These should be some of the qualifications needed to adopt,  and not whether they are gay. In some instances heterosexual couples cannot even provide these things. Yet, people are  being denied the right to adopt a child just because they are gay. Nevertheless, a  child should not  be cheated out of a good home just because of someone’s beliefs or values.

Adam Pertman, the President at the National Center on Adoption and Permanency and Myriad Strategic Partners, states that, “Even though marriage equality is now the law of the land, however  policies and practices remain in place that impede (and sometimes prevent) members of the LGBT community from becoming parents to these waiting children.”

[“As a gay person, as a child, you kind of know what it’s like to be the odd one out,” said O’Donnell, a lesbian who has four adopted children, including one born to her partner, Kelli Carpenter O’Donnell. “To deny people the right to try to reach kids who are unreachable is wrong.” Rosie has adopted children and kept them out of foster care, and is an advocate for the entire LGBT community. As a result, in 2013 Rosie helped produce a show on Abc Family called “The Fosters.”  This show signifies the struggle of a lesbian couple trying to raise four foster children, and also touches base on the heartache of not being able to have a baby.

Some Politician’s believe it is harmful to allow a LGBT member adopt, society is to some extent against the idea of allowing gay couple to adopt children because of Religious reasons, stating that  a homosexual is more prone to be a child molesters. As well as,  they fear that the adopted child might mimic the sexual orientation of their adopted parents. Also that the child will be faced with many different forms of bullying in school and any other areas in their social aspect.

My take on this argument is that a child may turn out to be gay  regardless of the sexual orientation of the parents who brought them up.  In addition, Homosexuals are no more prone to commit child molestation than heterosexuals.

“The National Center on Adoption and Permanency  is not a LGBT advocacy group. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated not only to helping every child live in an enduring family, but also to promoting evidence-based policies and practices that enable those children and families to succeed.Children grow up healthier in loving homes than in temporary government care, pointedly including when those homes are headed by lesbians or gay men,” said Pertman.”

Recently a Utah Judge removed a Lesbian couple’s foster child from their home because he said the child would be better off with heterosexual parents. As these loving parents sit with shock and heartbreak, they wondered why? They didn’t do anything wrong.  The judge was clearly biased on his own beliefs and values, even though recently same-sex marriage was passed. The judge should take a step back and look at the facts on what is considered in the best interest of the child, as well as putting all biases aside.

It is not being gay or straight,  protecting and nurturing our children is what is important. If children need a good, safe and loving home and two men or two women are able to provide that, well, more power to them. On November 11, 2015 the couples prayers were answered.  The judge removed himself from the case and reversed his decision. Still making it clear that he felt a child is in better care with a mother and father, even proven he said, but due to the circumstances of why the child was placed he will not remove the child.

What a great day for the couple, they were very grateful for the verdict but are aware that they will be under a watchful eye. Thankfully the National LGBT, and even Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped up to speak up for the couple. In addition, even State officials went to bat for this amazing family by filing court documents to revoke his decision. Standing up and supporting one another is the very best protesting a person can do for themselves or others.

Gay couples are allowed to adopt in many states. These children are at no risk of getting infected so to speak of homosexuality, or being dysfunctional. None of these studies have ever been conclusive as to it being detrimental to the psychological or physical health or happiness of the child.

The American Academy of Pediatrics actually encourage same-sex couples as well suited to parent as well as gay couples. Children raised in these families grow up to be well-adjusted, happy,  and most are actually more tolerant of individual differences in all people.

Children raised by same-sex couples are at no more risk of being bullied than the child with glasses, the obese child, or the child who walks or talks differently than the rest. All of these arguments are based through hate, intolerance, ignorance, and mostly the unknown.