Gays and Children

In a recent CNN poll, public opinion seemed to have changed from the views people held twenty or thirty years ago regarding gays. The numbers reflect a more accepting society in general and while there is still controversy in matters relating to marriage and the adoption of children, there is no doubt that public opinion is less resistant to consider those issues.

I don’t know if that is good or bad because, from my perspective we are getting into a situation where one side (Gays) are gaining ground and the other (Straight) are being defeated. In my view it shouldn’t have to come to this - one group against the other - because divisions can only hurt in the long run.

Socially, the way I’ve always considered this was rather simple. If someone was gay and didn’t affect my life with his/her choice, I never bothered about it. I could be friends with someone gay and still have my own life because there was no confrontation.

Today things have changed and we are more or less forced to take sides. I believe this has happened because of the newfound openness and the political pro-gay movements coming into play. When this movement started it was supposed to promote “acceptance”. Acceptance of a life-style and acceptance of a sexuality that goes against the grain. It also involved stopping discrimination in the workplace and other public circumstances. That was fine I guess because not everyone in this world thinks like me and there are individuals who’d do harm to others just because they are different.

However, after all this was accomplished, I perceive a more pernicious agenda taken place, where other areas of our common beliefs are under attack. The most important ones perhaps are marriage and children.
Apparently the political gay train has no brakes and wants to keep going for a very long run. And that, I resent a bit. We can argue about marriage and the significance of it in our society and whether the union of gay people should carry the same name. I believe it shouldn’t and perhaps a civil union would be more appropriate, but then who cares, it’s just my opinion.

But when it’s time to allow gay couples to adopt children I have a huge problem. Not a big problem, but a huge one! To begin with, when same sex people decide to unite they know that having children is not possible - or I hope they know that - and they took the decision to live happily ever after as a couple knowing that they cannot procreate. It was their choice and I can only wish they’ll be happy.
However, and here’s an incongruent situation, while they cannot have children of their own, they still want somebody else’s children. Not to be confused with women who unfortunately can’t procreate because of a medical condition and decide to adopt.

The huge problem I’m referring to is the fact that gay couples by adopting children are forcing those innocent lives into a situation that has many troubling ramifications. And, here comes the legal part of my question: How can two adults decide to take a child, legally unable to make his/her own decision and forced into a make believe family where there‘s no real mother (or father), and how our system in some cases allows that? These children are not pets, or furniture, they are people. People who will have to live with the consequences of somebody else’s actions for the rest of their lives.

In an effort to mimic a conventional marriage, gay couples have introduced this as a new tool for acceptance and in the process they hope we should consider their union as equal as a marriage between a man and a woman. Well, as open minded as I think I am, their union is not a marriage - as we know it - and they knew full well they couldn’t have children. Adopting perhaps gives them some sense of family, but they are doing that at the expense of innocent people who can’t decide for themselves. And the most incongruent scene is that of a social worker and the states approving this type of adoption.

Just in case some pro-gay will scream at this thoughts of mine claiming that even gay couples are able to offer a good environment to the child my anticipated answer is a resounding no. Yes, they may have the money to offer food and shelter and also a great education, but still, all of those things will be done under the pretend family they have created. For that matter a well to do mafia family can offer the same thing, but what’ll happen to that little brain in the process?