When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Hannah. She had the coolest house to play hide-and-seek in and one of those ceiling fans with giant fake crayons for propellers. But something was different about Hannah. She had two mothers, and was darker skinned than both of them. This confused me. I always pictured families as mommy, daddy, and baby. Never mommy, mommy, and baby. I also had a friend named Ella. Unlike Hannah, she had two dads. I was quite confused so I asked my mom why Hannah and Ella didn't have a mommy and a daddy, and why neither of them looked like their mommies or daddies. She told me that Hannah's moms loved each other and Hannah, and Ella's dads loved each other and Ella, and that love was what mattered in a family.
I interviewed a few people on the topic of same-sex adoption to see what people understood about it and what they believed about it. One person, who will be called K, began by saying, "you can interview me, but I don't know much about the topic. I don't know that it's very common". I found that interesting because, in fact, there are at least 10 million children being raised in gay or lesbian households (6). K went on to tell me that she believes that gay people should have the right to adopt because, "disallowing people to adopt can only make a situation worse" because then there would be more children without loving households. She also said that just because a child is raised in a homosexual household, the parents aren't going to teach the child to be gay if that's something people are worried about. But getting into more depth, our conversation moved into the idea of a normal family. "Sometimes I guess people see marriage as the bond between a man and woman, and in order to have children, they should be married; so that could be another issue". But overall, K was very supportive of homosexual adoption.
On the other hand, I interviewed another classmate, A. Our interview started bluntly, "Do you believe that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children?"
"No."
"Okay, but why?"
"Because they're gay,"
"And why is it bad for a child to be raised in a homosexual household?"
Hearing our conversation, another classmate, M, joined in, "Maybe because the child wouldn't have a role model for each gender. They might not have a father or mother figure to look up to, and maybe that's an important component of childhood". A immediately agreed and said, "yeah, that's it. Are we done?"
I approached a few other people in hopes to interview them, but no such luck. They either said that they didn't know anything about adoption or they were too busy. I'd like to further this project by delving more into the legalities of same-sex adoption. I can't really come to a powerful conclusion based off of the two interviews I've done, but from my own personal experiences as well as minor research on the subject, I am confident that a child growing up in a same-sex household will be just as, if not more, successful than a child raised in a mother-father environment.
On the other hand, I interviewed another classmate, A. Our interview started bluntly, "Do you believe that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children?"
"No."
"Okay, but why?"
"Because they're gay,"
"And why is it bad for a child to be raised in a homosexual household?"
Hearing our conversation, another classmate, M, joined in, "Maybe because the child wouldn't have a role model for each gender. They might not have a father or mother figure to look up to, and maybe that's an important component of childhood". A immediately agreed and said, "yeah, that's it. Are we done?"
I approached a few other people in hopes to interview them, but no such luck. They either said that they didn't know anything about adoption or they were too busy. I'd like to further this project by delving more into the legalities of same-sex adoption. I can't really come to a powerful conclusion based off of the two interviews I've done, but from my own personal experiences as well as minor research on the subject, I am confident that a child growing up in a same-sex household will be just as, if not more, successful than a child raised in a mother-father environment.
Bibliography
1. "Placing Children." Adoption Statistics. Adoption Statistics, 2011. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .
2. "Ethics of Adoption Financing ." Child Welfare Information Gateway. U.S. Dept. Health Services, n.d. Web. 3 Apr 2011 .
3. "PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act." (2010): 1-8. Web.
4. "Pros and Cons of Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.
5. "Same Sex Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.
6. "Gay & Lesbian Adoption Rights." Love and Pride (2008). http://www.loveandpride.com/informationcenter/tips.aspx?categoryid=7
5. "Same Sex Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteAfter a sweet personal opening story you focused on some peer reactions to the practice of adoption by same-sex couples.
This topic matters to me because it feels like it touches the heart of whether GLB folks will be allowed to be full members of the community (abstract) and also because I've met some wonderful GLB parents (relational). From a different than usual angle your topic addresses one of the essential issues in our sexual politics - should gay love be treated as poisonous or as beautiful - should GLB people be considered valuable and good and healthy or sick and toxic and evil?
I would have appreciated more from you on this topic. More interviews - GLB parents work in our building and send their children to our building. GLB students attend our school and some plan to parent.
More follow-up - did Casey feel mixed or not? Did Abdul have more reasons for his stance and did those reasons seem coherent to him and to you? (BTW - be careful about labelling people on the blog - "homophobic" sounds very pejorative - although it might (or might not) be accurate it doesn't make sense to focus negative attention from the WWW on a classmate. Please edit this.)
More research - what governmental and adoption agency policies currently impede or support adoption by GLB people? What organizations and efforts currently focus on this topic and how can we help them?
Thank you for your work.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteYou started with a personal story and then interviewed people on their thoughts regarding same-sex adoption. I liked how you explained your earlier confusion about the subject - this made it clear why you chose to investigate this particular topic. Your research and interviews matter to me because they highlight differing opinions - someone said that the child might be affected if they didn't have a role model of gender, but your research implies that this wouldn't matter, the child would be fine. One thing you could have done was interview a same sex couple, or the adopted child of a same sex couple, to get their perspective.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI think your project has a very good base question, and I don't really think GLB couples should be treated differently from heterosexual couples when it comes to parenting and birth, besides the changes that I think should apply to everyone, such as a reduction in doctor-managed hospital births in favor of more home births.
I think a possible improvement could have been to interview more people, but other than that I think it was very good.
Do GLB even have to mention their sexual orientation when adopting? If so, do you think it should be allowed? It almost seems like a predisposition towards discrimination.
Hi Elizabeth. I liked how you started off with anecdote about your childhood friends with same sex parents, good transition in to your topic.
ReplyDeleteI find this this topic interesting because I too believe gay couples should be allowed to adopt (and get married).
One thing you could've done to improve your project would be to have done more research and used more statistics and maybe quotes from psychologists or more relevant matter than just your points of view.
All in all good work!
This is the kind of topic that can stimulate endless conversation, both pro and con. While it’s been awhile since they were your schoolmates, it might have been interesting, time permitting, to contact Hanna and Ella and get some feedback about their lives today. It’s interesting how your current classmates could have such differing points of view, one so positive and one so negative. One of my best friends growing up has no tolerance for anything other than “conventional, normal” lifestyles and yet we continue to be good friends. As you might imagine, when we get together it makes for interesting conversation.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth -
ReplyDeleteI liked how you opened your post with your first impression of same-sex households. This was especially relatable for me because I remember Ella and her 2 dads! Then you went on to discuss what peers think now, providing an interesting contrast to when you're younger and simply confused.
M brings up an interesting point about kids being raised by same-sex couples not having a role model from the other gender, but I guess instead comes more openess to what may be considered nontraditional. I also read once that same-sex couples tend to have a more equal distribution of doing work around the house (cooking, dishes, laundry, etc) which may or may not have an effect on the child.
Either way, I agree with your conclusion that adopted kids of same-sex couples can certainly turn out alright, if not better :)
Sara B
Liz,
ReplyDeleteYour topic on same-sex adoption was one that I hadn't seen in anyone else's projects. Your interviews with two different points of view allowed some light to be shed on how people think. While it was a pretty small amount of interviewees, I think people can still get a sense of why because of your clarifications or inner monologue throughout the essay. I alos enjoyed the way you started off the piece. It sounded really cool and grabbed my attention quickly.
elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteYour project description immediately engaged the reader giving me a very vivid image of your own childhood and how the project relates to your own experiences and interests. your body paragraphs review your field research with some statistical background and your own analysis of why its important. what i liked was how you were immediately able to grab my attention on a topic that normally id be a bit uneasy to talk about. i think your conclusion was done well to give the reader i way to interpret the data how she wishes and indicating a conclusion but keeping it safe because of the lack of field research. which brings me to what i think you should improve on, your summary of data was great and i think if you were to have a deeper analysis by getting more field research that would be optimal. i am ofcoarse aware that the time was too limited to have many interviews done that are meaningful. thanks for the post i enjoyed reading it.
best,
john