UNICEF estimates that 140 million children worldwide are orphans (UNICEF.org), yet less than one-fifth of American adoption agencies allow homosexual couples to adopt (urban.org). Gay and lesbian couples being allowed to adopt is beneficial due to the fact that the children will have stability, homosexual couples are fundamentally the same as heterosexual couples, and healthy family units can be formed.
For these reasons, homosexual couples being allowed to adopt is the best choice for the world. Being in a family unit can provide children with a stable place to grow up. Without it, 24% of children endure some kind of homelessness and almost half spend time in jail within a few years of leaving foster care (Peak, 2016). Some opposers argue that married, biological parents are better for the development of children.
With almost 500,000 children awaiting adoption in the US alone (adoptuskids.org), however, adoption is a crucial process for healthy adults to develop. Homosexual couples have been found to have no major differences than heterosexual couples when it comes to child rearing.
Several studies that have been conducted over the past few years have agreed on this conclusion, though the sample size of gay couples raising children is small. Many people quote Dr. Judith Stacey to refute this claim, saying that children would be “more open to homoerotic relationships”(McEwen, 2009). However, Dr. Stacey herself has said that she’s misquoted in this fact (respectmyresearch.org).
Her studies concluded that there were only small differences, such as girls being “more sexually adventurous and less chaste” (Stacey and Biblarz, 2001). As a result of gay couples having no key differences from straight ones, healthy families can be formed and kept. This can mean that more of the hundreds of thousands of children awaiting adoption can have a family to grow up in. However, the Family Research Council’s study on the sexual habits of homosexual males has been used to devalue lasting gay relationships. The study claims that gay men have 3-1,000 sexual partners in their lifetime (McEwen, 2009), leading people to claim gay couples cannot last. This is contrasted by the fact that the FRC has removed the study on their website, saying it was outdated, and therefore proving it not valid. Due to the overwhelming orphan crisis in the world today, homosexual couples being excluded from the adoption process is illogical.
Children can enjoy stable families, there are no fundamental differences from straight couples, and healthy family units can be formed. Although many adoption agencies still bar gay couples from adopting, the number that are allowing it are steadily rising.