SHOULD MARRIED COUPLES GET PREFERENCE IN ADOPTION?: Lee Walzer
You really should have included some of these details in the column that you wrote -- it gives a more nuanced picture of what happened. In reading your original column, you made it seem like the social workers were out to score a victory for revolutionary alternative families, casting aside great married heterosexual couples. The special needs angle is interesting -- and underscores my previous point that, in many cases, same-sex couples are adopting kids that no one else might take. Not quite the case here, I agree -- perhaps.
It is hard to imagine social workers doing the egregious things that Susan alleges. They're licensed professionals and could certainly lose their licenses over incidents like these, if true. I also think you distort their thinking about family diversity. You have to put their thinking into context -- the way that we as a society have changed our views about adoption and what makes a good parent.
Thirty or forty years ago, adopted kids were placed with parents of the same ethnic group/religion. Only married people could adopt. A lot of children were not finding homes as a result. Over time, adoption social workers have come to see that children do well with single adoptive parents, and with same-sex couples (as well as gay and lesbian individuals) and that such placements can be good for children. I don't think they're out to consciously promote family diversity -- they're charged with looking for good homes for children who don't have a home/parents of their own.
How do you respond, Maggie, to the fact that there are far more kids available for adoption than there are adoptive parents in general, let alone married couples in particular? This is what motivates most social workers, not promoting family diversity.
posted by Eve at
2:09 AM | Link |
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