Transgender, Lesbian, and Gays Adopting

The United States of America is said to be a country that accepts and encourages diversity, but is that really true? Of course there are laws against discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, and religion, but at the same time there are laws that prohibit lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) couples from parenting children. Is it morally correct to allow persons with different sexual orientations to parent children? I say yes, it is. How can it not be morally incorrect to allow millions of children who otherwise would not have had a home, two loving parents, regardless of their sexual orientation?

As a democracy, the United States holds several morals, values, and truths to high standards, but they also allow citizens the right to exercise or partake in their own personal beliefs and practices. For example, Buddhism is not the religion that the United States was founded or based upon, but there many Buddhists who live in the country and are allowed to practice their religion at will. When looking to buy a house or any kind of dwelling, no one has the right to be denied based on their ethnicity, religion, or gender. When heterosexual couples choose to adopt children or use another method of conceiving, such as in vitro fertilization, there is no one there protesting against them. There are people debating the issue in Congress or discussing whether or not these people have the right to raise children. If there is no statue that limits these couples, why must there be one for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender couples. If the United States is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave, as it claims, then how can they pick and choose which civil liberties they are going to honor? If the country, as a people, decides that you can practice whatever religion you choose and partake in all the rituals and traditions of it, why not allow people of different sexual orientations to partake in their own lives and all the substance that they may consist of.

In the 2000 U. S. Census, 33% of female same-sex couples households and 22% of male same-sex couples households reported at least one child under the age of eighteen living in the home. This fact, alone helps to refute the idea that LGBT people cannot be parents. They are clearly as capable as any other heterosexual couples. Despite the presence of at least 163,879 households headed by lesbian or gay parents in U.S. society, there are still three major concerns about lesbian and gay parents (Falk, 1994; Patterson, Fulcher & Wainright, 2002). These include concerns that lesbians and gay men are mentally ill, that lesbians are less maternal than heterosexual women, and that lesbians' and gay men's relationships with their sexual partners leave little time for their relationships with their children. These concerns would be well valued if they could be substantiated, however, on the contrary, generally research has failed to provide a basis for any of these