In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Links: Gay couple ‘fathers’ 100 children
Background: Studies of same-sex couple adoptions
Opinion & Analysis: Journalists, bloggers and MTV discuss adoption by same-sex couples
Related Topics: Reaction to gay parents in the media; Books focused on adoption by same-sex couples
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Gay Couple in Netherlands Helps Raise 100 Children
by
findingDulcinea Staff
by Shannon Firth
Despite increasing public acceptance, gay couples often face opposition when trying to adopt, and debate continues.
Despite increasing public acceptance, gay couples often face opposition when trying to adopt, and debate continues.
30-Second Summary
25 years ago, Aad and Ron Dissel de Boo, a gay couple living in Holland, became foster parents to two abused boys “almost as a gesture of ill will” by the Welfare agency. They have since fostered more than 100 children.
Public acceptance of gay parents appears to be on the rise. A 2007 Pew poll stated that 46 percent of respondents believed gay and lesbian parents should be allowed to adopt, compared with 38 percent in 1999. The American Psychology Association supports same-sex couple adoption, and in the past two decades at least 15 studies of more than 500 children showed that children of gay or lesbian parents are not disadvantaged.
However, many social conservatives like Dr. James Dobson disagree, claiming: “[T]he majority of more than 30 years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and father.”
An ACLU press release rejects old rhetoric like Dobson’s, stating, “Children without homes do not have the option of choosing between a married mother and father or some other type of parent(s).”
Opposition to gay adoption often overlaps with concerns over homosexuality being “contagious.” Blogger Greta Cristina believes the gay community is fixated on persuading straight people that children they raise will not necessarily turn out to be gay.
Public acceptance of gay parents appears to be on the rise. A 2007 Pew poll stated that 46 percent of respondents believed gay and lesbian parents should be allowed to adopt, compared with 38 percent in 1999. The American Psychology Association supports same-sex couple adoption, and in the past two decades at least 15 studies of more than 500 children showed that children of gay or lesbian parents are not disadvantaged.
However, many social conservatives like Dr. James Dobson disagree, claiming: “[T]he majority of more than 30 years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and father.”
An ACLU press release rejects old rhetoric like Dobson’s, stating, “Children without homes do not have the option of choosing between a married mother and father or some other type of parent(s).”
Opposition to gay adoption often overlaps with concerns over homosexuality being “contagious.” Blogger Greta Cristina believes the gay community is fixated on persuading straight people that children they raise will not necessarily turn out to be gay.
Headline Links: Gay couple ‘fathers’ 100 children
In the Netherlands, Ron Dissel de Boo and his partner, Aad, created the Twee Vaders (Two Fathers) foundation to assist foster children. After learning that being around animals helped abused and disabled children cope with their difficulties, Ron learned to ride horses. He then began bringing his foster children to a nearby stable to ride and care for them.
Source: Radio Netherlands
In Georgia, five-year-old Jackson Manford Roach asked his fathers where his mother is. “We’re pretty upfront about it,” Manford said. “You just … say, ‘If you had a mommy, then you wouldn’t have two daddies. Is that what you want?’ And he says, ‘No I want two daddies and a mommy.’” According to the Urban Institute, 65,000 children in the United States are being raised by same-sex couples.
Source: CNN
Background: Studies of same-sex couple adoptions
Some children of gay parents do as well and sometimes better than children of single, heterosexual parents. Other studies comparing children of heterosexual parents and same-sex couples “did better in discipline, self-esteem and had less psychosocial difficulties at home and at school,” said Ellen C. Perrin, a professor at Tufts University.
Source: CBS
A 2006 policy report from from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute found “no child-centered reason to prevent gays and lesbians from becoming adoptive parents.” Moreover, the report endorsed having same-sex couples as providers of “permanent loving homes for children living in state care.”
Source: Adoption Institute
The ACLU reported that out of 100,000 children needing foster care, only 20,000 were placed in foster homes. The statistic includes adoption by both single and married couples.
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
Opinion & Analysis: Journalists, bloggers and MTV discuss adoption by same-sex couples
Blogger Greta Christina says the same people who promote the idea that homosexuality is an inborn trait also say that having gay parents won’t make you gay. Christina, who is openly gay, wrote, “We should stop ignoring scientific findings that do not mesh with our political beliefs.”
Source: Alternet.org
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse would disagree with the findings of the Adoption Institute and the Tufts University study. Roback-Morse said, “We know that children do best with their biological parents, married to each other … That evidence—and the inconclusive nature of the evidence on same sex parenting—means we have no right to assume that children will do just fine with same-sex couples.”
Source: Jennifer Roback Morse’s blog
Rebecca Meiksin, 22, isn’t gay but is supportive of her lesbian mother. Terrance McGeorge, the son of a gay father, is also gay, but says he knew he himself was gay before his father announced his own homosexuality.
Source: Post-Gazette
Related Topics: Reaction to gay parents in the media; Books focused on adoption by same-sex couples
Citing evidence from Dr. Kyle Pruett’s book “Fatherneed,” James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, objected to Mary Cheney’s decision to have a baby with her partner, Heather Poe. As a representative for the “[O]ur conviction is that birth and adoption are the purview of married heterosexual couples. Traditional marriage is God's design for the family and is rooted in biblical truth.
Source: Time magazine
MTV’s documentary “I Have Gay Parents” promotes acceptance of nontraditional families.
Source: MTV
Dr. Kyle Pruett’s book, “Fatherneed: Why Fathercare is as Essential as Mothercare for Your Child,” was cited in Dobson’s article, but believes his research was misappropriated. “[N]ever do I say in my book that children of gay parents are at risk.”
Source: Post- Gazette
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