I do believe that people who identify themselves as LGBT should have the right to marry each other, but there are red flags firing off when that discussion turns towards adoption, and gay parenting.
When I ask myself if it's alright for the LGBT to adopt, there is an immediate hesitation, and then a shaking of the head that occurs. Parenting? really? Isn't this something that is uniquely not gay. And by that I mean, the LGBT community is made up of people who chose to live an alternative lifestyle, one where the typical male female intercourse was rejected and instead they decided to go a different route. It seems to me that that precludes them from the nuclear family type of situation. Should a person who has chosen a lifestyle which doesn't allow for natural insemination and childbirth then be able to utilize science or adoption to obtain children? It is a sticky topic that we are going to get into.
Here's my disclaimer: i would like to discuss this issue without offending the LGBT community, but also without holding back thoughts that naturally come from the topic.
I would like to state officially that I think that gay marriage should be legal, and that gay people have a unique and interesting demographic who have positioned themselves very handsomely to have influence over our society. I don't want them to feel bullied, nor do I feel like by stating my opinion I should feel bullied.
I should also have the right to my beliefs, and If those beliefs seem like they are attacking a person specifically, I would like to state that I am not against any LGBT persons personally, but do acknowledge that their are actions, and view points which I do oppose.
Of course having two fathers or two mothers who identify themselves as LGBT as parents is much better than no parents at all. But i do think that we get into a situation where screening the parents is necessary. When screening parents, one of the things that should be identified is how much sexuality will be visible to pre-pubescent and pubescent children. There are a lot of issues here which start to converge. One: Gay people have chosen a lifestyle that on the outset (without help from adoption or science) precludes them from having children. Is there a need for more adoption to occur from parents who identify as being LGBT? This is troubling - because of the "alternativeness" of their lifestyle.
A study released this week suggests that, contrary to what years of academic research has said, children of gay parents actually fare worse than others.
According to the study's author, Mark Regnerus, a professor at University of Texas at Austin, the research "clearly reveals that children appear most apt to succeed well as adults — on multiple counts and across a variety of domains — when they spend their entire childhood with their married mother and father."
Regnerus says that his study shows stark differences between such children and those with gay parents: the latter are more likely to be unemployed, consider suicide, use drugs, have an STD and fall victim to sexual abuse. Discussing his study in Slate, Regnerus writes that children of same-sex parents experience greater "household instability" than others, and that it could be too much of a "social gamble" to "support this new (but tiny) family form." http://goo.gl/Uft6D
Now we are rearranging things so that they too can become part of the parenting process - which doesn't seem like we are giving up much much as a society, and gaining much much more - more parents, more adoptions, less kids without people to care for them. But it is largely the socialization as a whole which starts to become questioned. Gay parents would like the curriculum changed in schools, so that they don't seem marginalized. This puts straight parents in a situation where now they have to accept this "alternative lifestyle" and have public education teach their children about it, when may have been something that they didn't approve of in the beginning.
It's that whole give them an inch, they take a mile thing. And that's how the legal system works - you cite precedence, and then you can move forward. So if the precedence is set, which it already has been, there are more and more gay people becoming parents through adoption, so much that there is a popular television show which shows two gay fathers struggling through the adoption process in ABC's Modern Family. So I think there is a bit of shaky ground that we start to put ourselves over.
University professor Douglas Kmiec claimed that children who grow up in gay households "are more likely to be confused sexually" and to "face a heightened chance of being the victim of sexual abuse." Citing such research, opponents of same-sex marriage have settled on the talking point that "children need a mother and a father" to thrive.
By all means, there are straight parents who shouldn't be adopting or having kids of their own because of abuse, neglect or other factors. YES, of course there are examples of bad parenting we can use to cite that some straight people are not doing a good job of parenting. It is evident that there needs to be more stringent application process to identify good would be parents from those who are looking to profit, or to take advantage of children without families. But one of the things that we talk about is rights.
Alternative lifestyles like to spout off all kinds of choices that they have the right to make. But when it comes to parenting, shouldn't we as a society opt to put these orphaned children in homes of people who have made stable and morale choices? I'm not saying that gay people can't be morale, or that religion plays too much a part of this conversation. But for the most part the LGBT community is a community that has a charged sense of sexual gratification.
Isn't this sexual promiscuity, and right to express themselves how they feel fit in the privacy of their own home something that is well beyond the G rating or the PG rating of kids? I'm not saying that LGBT parents wouldn't make different choices than say LGBT singles. I'm saying that it would be hard to mandate, and it seems that their bases for their rights comes from an understanding that they want to celebrate their sexuality. i don't see that fundamental value changing as people who identify themselves as LGBT become parents.
Within the audience of Christians, there are things that we must know about homosexuality, and God's wishes. As much as homosexuals and atheists alike try and twist the words of the Bible to meet with their view of the world, or to mock the position of those who believe, the Bible is very clear on where God stands on homosexuality.
There are those who like to say that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. Various verses are cited (out of context), and the verses that people use to show that homosexuality is wrong are explained away. The world wants to change God's words and meanings into something more suitable to its sinful desires. Nevertheless, the truth stands: the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin. Let's look at what it says. http://goo.gl/YuDPC
Lev. 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."
Lev. 20:13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them"
1 Cor. 6:9-10, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
Rom. 1:26-28, "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."Are gay rights issues parallel or different from race-related civil rights in the US?
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