OPPapers.com

Gay Marriage

Gay Marriage: Beneficial for Children

According to the 2000 United States Census, there are approximately 594,391 homosexual couples living together in the U.S. Of those couples, 163,036, or around 27%, reported that they were raising children as a family. Their families were made up of biological, adopted, and foster children. The families are each very different in the way that they were built, but all of these families have one thing in common: they lack the protection of the children in the way that children of heterosexual unions are protected.
Over the years many stereotypes regarding gays and lesbians have been prevalent in the heated conversation regarding gay marriage. Besides the supposed "sanctity" of a traditional marriage, opponents have often used children as a way to denounce the legalization of gay marriage. Public policies regarding gays and lesbians have long been determined by politicians and judges who claim that homosexuals are mentally ill, promiscuous, and unable to provide the proper maternal or paternal necessities for children (Patterson, 2005). These beliefs still ring in the minds of many people from all walks of life even though the American Psychological Association no longer has homosexuality classified as a mental disorder, promiscuity is hard to evaluate in any single group of people, and children from gay families are increasing and are showing that they are not lacking in any sense.
Opponents of gay marriage state that the purpose of marriage is to reproduce and bring more children into this world. Opponents of gay marriage believe that because two men or two women together cannot produce a child, they should not be afforded the benefits of marriage. Some refer to biased research by conservative groups that report that a child needs both a mother and a father to be reared into healthy adulthood (Kolasinski, 2004). Because of the nature of the research, little attention has been paid to these groups by mainstream...