...one man and one woman raising their children together. The key word is traditionally; America is so caught up in traditions. Traditionally, it would be ridiculous to think that a child could be raised in a gay household. But it is becoming more acceptable in our society to embrace different ideas of what a family should be, such as the acceptance of gay adoption. Gay adoption should be allowed because there are far too many children without loving homes, because it is prejudice to deny homosexuals the right to adopt based on sexuality, and because it is narrow-minded to assume that heterosexuals make better parents than homosexuals do. In the United States alone, the number of children forced into the foster care system is unimaginable. According to the most current Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Report there were about 423,773 children in foster care in the United States on September 30, 2009 ("The afars report," 2010). Each foster child in the system should have a chance at adoption. To deny homosexuals the right to adopt is heartbreaking for both the child and the potential gay parent or couple. Gay parents are already serving as foster parents towards children; adoption is simply confirming the legal rights of the gay couple. The sexual orientation of a potential parent looking to adopt should not matter; the child should be placed into a home if it is in the best interest of the child. The number of children in foster care is high, but it can be...
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...The traditional definition of family is one man and one woman raising their children together but in my opinion blood relations, legal documents, or a last name does not determine family. Traditionally, it would be shocking to think that a child could be raised in a gay household. But it is becoming more acceptable in our society to embrace different ideas of what a family should be, such as the acceptance of gay adoption. In the United States alone, the number of children forced into the foster care system is incredible. According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Report there were about 423,773 children in foster care in the United States only a couple of years ago. (The Afcars Report, 2010). Gay parents are already serving as foster parents towards children; adoption is simply confirming the legal rights of the gay couple. The sexual orientation of a potential parent looking to adopt should not matter; the child should be placed into a home as long as it is in the best interest of the child. The number of children in foster care is high, but it can be significantly decreased if we allow children to be adopted by homosexuals. However, there are still negative attitudes towards gay and lesbian adoption, making the process of adoption harder for homosexuals. A study interviewing 776 adoptive parents showed the differences in attitudes between married fathers, married mothers, and single mothers “The factors determining negative judgment of gay...
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...DeVry University Table of Contents Introduction Page 2 Capability / Fitness of Gay and Lesbian Parents Page 3 Shortage of Potential Adoptive and Foster Parents Page 4 The sexual orientation of the Potential Parents Page 5 Conclusion Page 6 Bibliography Page 7 Introduction According to A. Littauer on “Same Sex Parenting”, gay people have parented their children for as long as people have understood themselves as gay. However, homosexual parents often shielded themselves and their children from scrutiny by publicly concealing their sexual orientation in the past. But by the end of the twentieth century, an estimated six to ten million gay and lesbian parents in the United States were raising six to fourteen million children, often in openly recognized gay families. Most of these children were born to heterosexually married parents; one or both of whom later came out as gay or lesbian (Littauer 2008). Allowing LGBT parents to adopt or foster has been the subject of controversy for a long time. Discussions and debates about adoption and foster care by gay or lesbian parents occur frequently among child welfare policy makers, social service agencies and social workers. However, while such an ongoing debate exist, on any given day in the United States about a half million children are living foster care. Additionally, many of our personal resources are spent adopting internationally or through private domestic adoption agencies, in an attempt to avoid the unnecessary...
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...alarming rate of children in need of homes in the United States. This year 423,773 children are in foster care awaiting homes (Child Welfare Information Gateway 2011). With a number so high, why are we discriminating against same-sex couples adopting? Homosexuals are regular people like everyone else. They have dreams of having families and raising children just like everyone else. They shouldn’t be labeled unfit parents due to their sexual orientation. Love, trust and understanding are what families are made of. I stand up for what I believe in, and I believe that if a homosexual couple can provide a loving, nurturing, and safe environment for a child then they should be deemed worthy of parenting and allowed to adopt! Controversy exists as to whether same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt and many reasons are given. Some of these are that the child will turn gay; gay and lesbian relationships don’t last; and children who live with same-sex parents suffer more emotionally and mentally than children who live with heterosexual parents. Living in a homosexual environment does not make children become homosexuals. Homosexuality is a natural occurrence, not one that is learned. Studies have found that children raised in same-sex homes are no more likely to turn homosexual than a child raised in a heterosexual household. Yes, there have been children who live with and have been raised by homosexuals that have said they are gay or lesbian. However, there are children who are gay...
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...Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act of 1851. Adoption has become worldwide since World War II because of poverty or war. 60,000 children in the United States were reported as abused or neglected in 2004. There are many cases why children enter the system because of physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, medical neglect, incarceration, abandonment, truancy, death and voluntarily placed. Adoption allows people who cannot have biological children to experience children and the role...
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...As of 2014, more than 650,000 children were involved in foster care. More than half of these children were non-white (Foster Care - Children's Rights). The numbers continue to rise as years go by and we are seeing these children become products of their environment. Once they age out of foster care nearly a quarter are homeless, sixty percent of males have been convicted of a crime, and more than two-thirds of women have a child (Fessler). With all of these children under the care of the states, these children will soon age out and become members of our society. With almost forty-seven percent of former foster children being unemployed (CR Staff) they are contributing nothing to society, thus making this a huge societal problem. So, what happens...
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...Our Foster System Children are the backbone of any society. They represent what will come of that future society. Unfortunately, not all children are cared for, this can be a problem when we look at how children in the foster care system will grow up. When looking at the present time, there is major flaws in the current foster care system. The children today are not being properly taken care of. There are many reasons including: Poor funding, lack of homes, and settling issues. Overall, the flaws are making an unstable households and the issue must be fixed. The foster system of today is broken, the child inside are struggling mentally and physically; the system needs to be improved, the opposing view would be that foster care is successful...
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...“I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.” by Kenny Guinn ( Quotes, 2015 Web). Every day there are children of all ages that are faced with living in unsafe home environments. It may be that they are being physically abused, emotionally abused, sexually abused, or neglected. Unfortunately, often the maltreatment is being done by the very person who was supposed to protect the child and keep them safe from harm. Neither one of the abuses being any less harmful to the child than any of the others, they all require action to be taken to preserve...
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...Adopt Us Kids, there are over 14,000 children in the foster care system in Ohio alone. (Adopt Us Kids, 2013) If we factor in the entire United States, that number goes up exponentially. However, for the purpose of this paper, all references will be related to the needs of the foster children in Ohio. Unfortunately, what is discussed in this paper relates to the needs of the other 386,000 or so kids in the foster care system throughout the United States. That need, the one that is so important, is the fact that there aren’t enough foster parents. There are more children in the foster care system than there are parents to take care of them. Foster care can be considered a necessary evil. The end results are not always what we hope them to be, but without it, so many more children would be lost. An article, written in 1986, says it best: “Foster care is a necessary evil”, explained Robert Hayes, a lawyer with the Coalition for the Homeless. In a recent interview with Children’s Express, “There are times and places when parents cannot take care of their kids. But sometimes, children can live for 18 years in ‘temporary foster care’.” Hayes goes on to say: “this accounts for why these children never learn many of the appropriate tools of life”. (Lin, Zelermyer, Young & Young, 1986) This paper, written in 1986, tells of the same exact issues that are faced today. Children are often forgotten about or misplaced because of the demands placed upon foster parents and social workers. Having...
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...2012 Barbara Plyler Should Same Sex Couples Have the Same Adoption Rights as Heterosexual Couples? In 2008, President Barack Obama stated there are too many children who need loving parents to deny one group of people adoption rights (eQuality, 2005). A child will benefit from a healthy, loving home, whether the parents are gay or not (eQuality, 2005). With that statement in 2008 from the individual who holds the most powerful authority in the United States, why are gay and lesbian couples today still battling adoption laws? When in fact while trying to adopt and raise children a couple’s sexual orientation should not be a factor. Homosexuals should not have to battle or circumvent adoption laws. The American family does not look the same as it did 30 years ago; therefore the adoption laws should not be the same either. Consequently, the adoption laws for some states are changing as the world evolves and realizes that a child’s well-being is more important than his or her parent’s sexual preferences. Currently, gay and lesbian couples are prohibited from adopting in only two states, Utah and Mississippi (Tavernise, 2011). Equally important is the exclusion on marriage and equal parenting rights for both parents. Some same sex households face the inequality in parental rights when children are included from previous heterosexual relationships. For example, in 2002 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that same sex adoptions should be permissible. The...
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...happy and healthy family in the United States has always been looked at as a traditional mother, father, 2.5 kids a dog and a goldfish and that the child’s wellbeing is determined by having a good, strong mother and a father to teach and guide their children to be the best they can be. However, what about the opposite? Many same-sex couples are ready and willing to adopt and have a family of their own, but many states have laws in place that ban same-sex couples from being able to adopt. This ban on same-sex adoption leaves thousands of children without families in the foster care system or in unstable households where they will never reach their full potential. Currently, there are 130,000 children in the foster care system without a permanent family (Ryan, Averett, & Nalavany, 2009). Giving same-sex couples the opportunity to adopt could lessen the load and give more children loving, healthy, and happy permanent families. As of today, 24 states recognize same-sex marriage and only 19; including Washington DC permit same-sex couples to jointly adopt; which allows a couple to adopt a child at the same time. 13 states permit second-parent adoption and 6 states explicitly ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in foster care (Family Equality, 2014). Second-parent adoption is the adoption of a child by a second parent in a home who is married to the legal parent of the child. This allows the second parent to adopt the child without the first parent losing any parental...
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...Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Mary Ellen Garcia Liberty University Multicultural Issues in Human Services -509 Dr. Eva Straner Due: August, 2013 Abstract In the last thirty years, Grandparents have played a significant role in raising their grandchildren. Numerous changes have occurred that have required our current society to move in a familiar direction to care for children that would in other times have been placed in foster care homes. Research has shown that factors that include substance abuse, illness, child abuse, domestic violence, neglect, and death have put a greater challenge on Grandparents living arrangements. With the increase of divorce, the lack of child care, the demands placed on a single parent to enter the work force to financially support a household has also added to the increase of Grandparent participation in the raising of their grandchildren. In the past, Grandparents worked to support their families and looked forward to the day of their retirement and possible social activities of leisure. These goals have decreased significantly as Grandparents have had to take on the role of sole caregivers and active participates in raising their minor age grandchildren. Grandparents find that their age, income status, health limitations and the challenges with the children, affect their everyday life. The Legal System and Child Welfare Agencies rely on the next of kin to assist with immediate placements but have not included immediate legal ramifications...
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...A sad rise in unwanted births each year has contributed to the overwhelming need for qualified parents with love to give, who would know there is no joy greater than that of parenthood. There are not enough same-sex couples or straight individuals who are qualified and willing to adopt the many children that currently reside within the foster care system. Many can not support these children, they have biological children of their own, or they simply do not want children at this point in life. The final result remains, an alarming number of unwanted children in need of stability and unconditional love. There is a solution to this devastating issue. There is a rising amount of openly gay couples and some of them would love nothing more than to have a family of their own, but it is still illegal for homosexual couples to adopt children in some states and these state governments continue to make this process difficult for all involved. Throughout the United States, and in other countries as well, there are kids awaiting a forever family and eager...
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...when you think of it, any type of budget for the school system is detrimental for certain districts. That is why see a few of the smaller and poor districts suffer they end up getting in a whole they cannot get out of. Budget cuts are like a vicious cycle in the schools never come on top. A few of the things that budget cuts teach children is how to think of other ways to raise money for their schools, fundraising is a good idea. Fundraising teaches children that if they want something really bad let’s say a music program or a school trip they will put up a fundraiser that not only helps the school but it helps the community. Fundraising doesn’t just help out schools it is also good for the kids who are in foster care. Foster care children need to raise money for books and school supplies. They also need to raise money so that their housing can be updated with better...
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...are dealing with the loss of a job, death, poverty, low income, no income, and are unable to provide and care for their family. The social problem that was selected to discuss and talk about is grandparents raising grandchildren. Today grandparents not only have to play the role as a grandparent but they too have to take on the task of being a parent as well. Grandparents do not sign up to be the care taker of their grandchild or grandchildren however when there is a dramatic change or transition in the life of the child and there is no other family member who can provide and care for the child the grandparent then will be the next of kin to care for them. Grandparents whom are raising their grandchildren is not something that is new and has been an epidemic for quite some time. Grandparents are playing role models to their grandchildren due to the circumstances and situations of their parents such as mental illness, substance abuse, incarceration and so many more reasons as to why the grandparents are raising their grandchildren. The paper will discuss the important facts that lead up to why it is a social problem with grandparents whom are raising their grandchildren. In the paper it will discuss how the grandparents age can play a major role in the raising the grandchildren and if something were to happen where would the children go and who would continue to care for them. Grandparents are important in children’s lives. The role that they play can help the child to...
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