Every child has the right to a loving family. Yet children around the globe continue to live in loneliness, without the affection of a devoted and caring family. According to the National Child Abuse Statistics at childhelp.org, three million cases of child abuse are reported every year in the United States. Millions of additional children reside in crowded orphanages or are left to fend for themselves on the streets because of poverty, neglect and maltreatment.
As it is, adoption and foster family agencies struggle to find warm, inviting homes for orphaned children, mainly because the number of needy children heavily outweighs the number of qualified couples.
Also, many heterosexual couples choose to bear their own children over adoption or foster care. Now, yet another obstacle bars needy children from a family they deserve.
On Nov. 4, nearly 57 percent of Arkansas voters approved the state’s Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, which bans people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from serving as foster parents or adopting children. This measure encompasses gay and straight couples; however, it specifically targets same-sex couples. The Arkansas Family Council Action Committee states that one of the three purposes of this adoption act is “to blunt a homosexual agenda that has used the shortage of adoptive or foster care homes in other states as means of advancing their social agenda.”
Social conservatives aim to carry out this same ban in other states. I would hope that the rest of the United States would realize the extremely negative effect such a step would have on the country. Acts like this one and Proposition 8 in California are not only direct attacks on same-sex couples, they ensure an even dimmer future for needy children. As such measures continue to pass, it becomes increasingly apparent that many Americans are intent on preventing the formation of close-knit families, simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
As of Nov. 4, California now prohibits gay marriage via Proposition 8. If it or virtually any other state were to take the next step and pass a measure similar to the Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, gay people would be unable to open their homes to a child in need. The more restrictions placed on adopters, the more homeless children there will be.
About 1,000 children are currently up for adoption in Arkansas. The worst part is the majority of those children are in state custody because they have been abused, neglected or simply abandoned by their heterosexual parents. While social conservatives continue to argue that same-sex couples are incapable of raising children, many heterosexual couples are beating their own children. These issues are clearly unspecific to sexual orientation.
What’s more, as incomes decrease during these tough economic times, the number of abused and neglected children in need of foster care grows even higher. According to a report by the American Humane Association, poverty is one of the main reasons for child abuse and neglect. Statistics from the Children’s Defense Fund show that children living in families with an annual income less than $15,000 are 22 times more likely to be abused or neglected than children living in families with an annual income exceeding $30,000.
This is no time for states to insist upon instigating a movement that would turn away qualified parents and leave children without a good, safe home. But regardless of the economic condition, there is never a time when denying same-sex couples and needy children the right to a family is a just action to take.
People once claiming to be “pro-family” are now arguing that gay couples are unfit to raise children who heterosexual couples might adopt. But how can one be “pro-family” when he or she so readily opposes two loving adults starting a family of their own? Same-sex couples are just as capable, in some cases more so, of raising a child. A 2002 article in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, stated, “a growing number of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with one or two gay and/or lesbian parents fare just as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual.” The ability to provide for and love a child is not dependent upon one’s sexual orientation – it is dependent upon the nature of the individual, the compatibility of the couple and their compassion for the child.
States ought to look only at the qualifications of the couple and their ability as human beings, not as homosexuals or heterosexuals, to provide a secure and loving home for orphaned children. I want to see the America that I thought I knew once again, instead of one broken by discrimination and narrow-mindedness.
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