The only state in the Union which cares enough about innocent, vulnerable young children to prohibit their adoption into same-sex households is Mississippi. And now advocates for special rights for homosexuals are going to court to force the state to put kids into gay and lesbian households.
The sad reality is that if the gay lobby is successful in this suit, they will force the state of Mississippi to engage in a pattern of state-sponsored and legalized child abuse.
Marriage is ultimately not about giving adults what they want. It is about giving children what they need. Children need and deserve to be raised by both a mother and a father who are married to each other.
No society that cares about its most helpless and defenseless citizens would ever deliberately place children in a home with a missing mother or father, but that is what every homosexual adoption does.
Robert Oscar Lopez, who was raised by two lesbians, has written forcefully that same-sex parenting has so many downsides that it is a form of child abuse (emphasis mine throughout):
“I am not saying that same-sex parents are automatically guilty of any kind of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse to the children they raise. Nor am I saying that LGBT people are less likely to take good care of children.
“What I mean is this: Even the most heroic mother in the world can’t father. So to intentionally deprive any child of her mother or father, except in cases like divorce for grave reasons or the death of a parent, is itself a form of abuse.”
Eminent social science researcher Dr. Mark Regnerus conducted the most thorough study of same-sex parenting ever done by interviewing adults who had been raised in same-sex environments.
His study is summarized in this way: [“T]he data show rather clearly that children raised by gay or lesbian parents on average are at a significant disadvantage when compared to children raised by the intact family of their married, biological mother and father.”
Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council tabulates the findings as follows:
Compared to children raised by their married biological parents ("intact biological family," or IBF), children of homosexual parents (“lesbian mothers,” or LM, and “gay fathers,” or GF):
- Are much more likely to have received welfare growing up (IBF 17%; LM 69%; GF 57%)
- Have lower educational attainment (IBF 3.19; LM 2.39; GF 2.64)
- Report less safety and security in their family of origin (IBF 4.13; LM 3.12; GF 3.25)
- Report more ongoing "negative impact" from their family of origin (IBF 2.30; LM 3.13; GF 2.90)
- Are more likely to suffer from depression (IBF 1.83; LM 2.20; 2.18)
- Have been arrested more often (IBF 1.18; LM 1.68; GF 1.75)
- If they are female, have had more sexual partners-both male (IBF 2.79; LM 4.02; GF 5.92) and female (IBF 0.22; LM 1.04; GF 1.47)
Compared to children from intact biological families (IBF), children of lesbian mothers:
- Are more likely to be currently cohabiting (IBF 9%; LM 24%)
- Are almost 4 times more likely to be currently on public assistance (IBF 10%; LM 38%)
- Are barely half as likely to be currently employed full-time (IBF 49%; LM 26%)
- Are more than 3 times more likely to be unemployed (IBF 8%; LM 28%)
- Are nearly 4 times more likely to identify as something other than entirely heterosexual (Identifies as entirely heterosexual: IBF 90%; LM 61%)
- Are 3 times as likely to have had an affair while married or cohabiting (IBF 13%; LM 40%)
- Are an astonishing 11 times more likely to have been "touched sexually by a parent or other adult caregiver" in childhood(but not necessarily by the homosexual parent; IBF 2%; LM 23%)
- Are nearly 4 times as likely to have been "physically forced" to have sex against their will (at some time in their life, not necessarily in childhood; IBF 8%; LM 31%)
- Are more likely to have "attachment" problems related to the ability to depend on others (IBF 2.82; LM 3.43)
- Use marijuana more frequently (IBF 1.32; LM 1.84)
- Smoke more frequently (IBF 1.79; LM 2.76)
- Watch TV for long periods more frequently (IBF 3.01; LM 3.70)
- Have more often pled guilty to a non-minor offense (IBF 1.10; LM 1.36)
Spring points out that a careful examination of Regnerus’ findings reveal that children of lesbian mothers fare signficiantly worse in 57 different categories than children raised by a mom and a dad.
Here’s the significance Lopez sees in these findings:
“Like divorce and single parenting, same-sex parenting isn’t merely controversial or untested; we know that children have poorer life outcomes when they are raised outside a married biological-parent household. The data we have, thanks to the work of scholars like Regnerus, make it all the more clear that it’s abusive to force children to live without a mother or father simply to satisfy adult desires.”
Lopez concludes his piece as follows:
“I don’t have a silver bullet tactic for suddenly making low-information Americans aware that all the same-sex parenting propaganda—and more broadly our growing acceptance of non-traditional parenting—is really a cover for systematic abuse. My hunch, however, is that it might be time simply to drop all the masks, put away our strategies, and just state the uncensored truth.”
The homosexual activists challenging Mississippi’s ban on same-sex adoption are arguing that it “discriminates.” Of course it does - it “discriminates” against suboptimal nurturing environments for vulnerable young children.
The state is prepared to take children away from heterosexual parents who abuse their children. Is that discrimination? Of course it is. Is it the right kind of discrimination? Of course it is.
There is a bad kind of discrimination, which is based on superficial characteristics like skin color. But there is a good kind of “discrimination,” which is nothing more than wisdom and discernment based on moral principle and the best in research. A ban on same-sex adoption is based on what is best for children by rejecting what we know to be substandard home environments.
Bottom line: reserving adoption for a husband and a wife who are married to each other is the best kind of “discrimination” there is.
