SHOULD MARRIED COUPLES GET PREFERENCE IN ADOPTION?: Lee Walzer
Marriagedebate.com posed the question, "Should we prefer married parents or ban marital status discrimination? Or neither?"
The question should be rephrased to read: "Should we prefer married parents or permanent homes for children in need of an adoptive family?" Those are the real stakes here, with a real impact on children. Anyone familiar with adoption knows that there are far more children in need of a forever family than there are prospective adoptive parents. Start giving preferences (affirmative action) for married couples and the pool of adoptive parents will shrink accordingly, with children left to suffer the consequences.
That is the true travesty of Florida's anti-gay adoption policy -- thousands of children continue to languish in Florida's foster care system, shuttled between foster homes, and never knowing permanency. Ending the adoption ban there would have helped some of these children.
The preamble at marriagedebate.com noted that adoption is about the best interests of the child, not "adults' needs and desires." Unfortunately, too many conservatives seem to put their needs and desires to make an ideological point about marriage over the very real needs of children. So much for family values -- better to let children grow up without any parents than to give them love and permanency in the home of a same-sex couple or a single person.
posted by Eve at
2:03 AM | Link |
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