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| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Ultimately I believe that gays should possess the right to civil unions however, they should not possess the religious right to marry (if it is in violation of religions practice). After all, are we going to force the KKK to stop its discriminatory practices and make them accept black members? That being said, I also think that the legal benefits granted to the institution of marriage should be abolished. There is simply no point. It is discrimination to single out married people for monetary gains as a reward for their supposed increase in "values" over single people. If the desire is to promote monogomous values (for whatever reason) then apply the same benefits to civil unions as well. Instead of providing legal benefits to marriage, legal benefits should be provided to those who actually bear the cost of having children. Therefore we are providing incentive and rewards to where incentives and rewards are actually due. That being my take on marriages, I now move on to the ability forr homosexuals to adopt children (the real issue at stake it seems). |
I pretty much agree with you here. Not much more to say...
| quote: | | With respect to the issue of gays raising children, I see no reason at all why homosexuals should be discriminated against without similarly holding many others in society in the same regard on the basis of what we "know" and what we don't "know". |
Agree here too. I wasn't really saying that homosexuals shouldn't have the legal right to adopt - I'm kind of in the "innocent until proven guilty" realm for that (i.e. let's let it happen and see how their kids turn out - but when I say see, I mean actually pay attention to what results from this).
| quote: | | If we are talking about the dangers of passing on psychological issues (alone) to children why do we not perform studies on other segments of society to determine whether they will fester psychological problems in a child? How about multi-racial families? There have been no studies performed on black children adopted by white families, or Asian children adopted by white families, or vice-versa therefore should we enact raced based restrictions on adoption? Well what if you're in a mixed raced marriage? There have been no studies performed on such families to see if those children could grow up to have psychological problems associated with the societal stigmatisms against such families so why allow them the ability to adopt? Furthermore, perhaps we could set up a sliding scale system of sorts … those who have a successful history of raising children without any apparent psychological problems could be given priority over those parents who are perhaps sterile and therefore have had NO experience raising children, correct? We could look at this issue at all angles and edit out entire segments of society (along with the homosexuals) until we have “observed” all possible scenarios I suppose. |
I think the simple answer to this is that we aren't talking about race here, we're talking about lifestyle. Again, I'm not against gay adoptions per se, but if I were, I would be saying that the adoption boards have plenty of other requirements for adoption, they do screen their applicants, and I think they kind of have a right to decide who they feel is best for the child. I don't think that gays should be legally prohibited from adopting, but I also think that if the legal guardians are uncomfortable with letting that couple adopt, then they shouldn't be forced to do it.
In fact, I worry that any pro-gay legislation in this area would lead to the same kind of reverse-discrimination that we see in other areas - I worry that the legal guardians would feel compelled to let that couple adopt because they're gay, even if they feel like they'd be unfit parents for some other reason. Because, if they refused, they would probably get taken to court for discrimination and the couple would claim that they were only refused because they're gay, and the guardians would have to go through a whole long process of proving that they thought they were unfit parents... blah.
Gays like to "victimize" themselves like many other minorities even when other people aren't discriminating against them, and this is why the whole marriage thing bothers me. Adoption? Okay, it's fine, but let's study it for a while too, we're breaking new ground here...
I really do worry about self-victimizing, and I think I can say with confidence that this worry comes from experience with all kinds of minorities including gays, it's not a theoretical concern.
| quote: | | So what if the kid ends up homosexual? Does that mean all the heterosexual bearing portions of the population are going to die out? Is homosexuality going to be spread like some kind of virus? |
No, of course it doesn't mean that, but it would kind of serve to prove that homosexuality isn't something purely genetic, and that equating homosexuals on the same level as blacks or Arabs (who obviously can't change their skin colour or cultural heritage) is fundamentally flawed.
| quote: | | But wait, if homosexuality is about genetics then this shouldn’t be a problem? |
Exactly, and that's why I said, let's see what happens. Let's see whether or not this is really genetic. The proof lies in the grown children.
| quote: | | At either rate, can you show studies proving that homosexuals raise homosexuals thereby providing some kind basis for removing their right to raise children (note: not the right to adopt, the right to raise children)? |
Not as such, because no such studies have been conducted - don't you agree that we should conduct them, though? If not for any other purpose than pure scientific curiosity? I see a lot of other bullshit studies and "junk science" being done - at least this would be a topic of interest and importance.
| quote: | | If we’re going to base our arguments on determining the eligibility of parenting based upon lifestyles the children may adopt, once again I can see large proportions of the population that we can deem ineligible as well. |
I agree completely. There are a lot of people that probably shouldn't be allowed to adopt (shouldn't be allowed to have kids either) - horrible parents that raise emotional wrecks or, even worse, abuse their children. Should known child molesters be allowed to adopt kids?
That's why when a child is going to be adopted, the guardians are supposed to screen the potential adopters and see if they would be fit parents. I don't think this should be written into law for gays or any other social group, but I think the guardians should be able to make their decisions based on any criteria they want without interference from the government. They are trying to act in the best interests of that child.
| quote: | | Then by similar standards sterile heterosexual couples do not have the “right” to these benefits as well. |
Again, I agree - parents shouldn't be receiving legal benefits related to child-bearing if they can't have kids. I like your original suggestion about making those laws for people who actually have kids, but somehow I don't think it will happen, we're being idealistic. 
| quote: | But you are correct that adoption is a legal procedure not a biological one. And the institution of adoption is not set up to mold individuals to select lifestyles or as a method of encouraging procreation … is it? It’s about finding loving homes for unwanted children. I would be surprised to find text in their charters that their desire is to help these children by finding homes that encourage procreation. If you want to set up adoption as a means to encourage making babies then once again we can have plenty of fun finding out what segments of society best suit these needs. Eg: Mormonism encourages large families and greater procreation therefore they would be given adoptive priority over say …. Aetheists |
Ha ha. Once again though, I tend to sit on the fence when it comes to gay adoption. If they're going to raise kids when nobody else will, that's okay. Even if those kids turn out all gay, I guess there's nothing wrong with that.
Again, the reason I brought this up was to say that the adopted children of these gay couples are going to be the conclusive proof of whether or not homosexuality is truly something you're just born with and could never change no matter how much you wanted to.
Against gay marriages here, not gay adoption. 
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