As we approach Father’s Day, a British adoption charity  is encouraging gay men to apply as adoptive dads – so that next year, some of the 6000 kids waiting for adoptive parents, will have a dad to celebrate. Sir Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Action for Children, said:

In the UK there are 6,000 children waiting to be adopted and we know that gay men can make loving fathers.

If more people came forward we would be able to help give loving homes to thousands of children.

We need to make sure that everyone knows that they can adopt – so by next year many more will celebrate their first Father’s Day

via  – ITV News.

The Catholic Church and others opposed to adoption by gay men and lesbians, make claims such as that a child needs (or has a right to) a mother and a father, and that we must always put the best interests of the child before the selfish desires of those wanting children. These claims (they hardly qualify as rational arguments) completely miss the point.

Even if it were true that children do better when raised by two opposite sex parents (a claim which is contradicted by research comparing like with like family composition), the issue for many children awaiting adoption is not whether they should have opposite – sex or same – sex parents, but whether they can have the chance of any parents at all, or none. The simple fact that we have 6000 kids waiting to be placed is tragic evidence both that they their own, biological parents (of difference sexes) have been unable to give them suitable care, and also that where adoptive parents are available, the children who are most easily placed, are usually young, healthy babies. Older children, those with severe health problems, or behavioural difficulties (possibly resulting from earlier neglect by unsuitable opposite – sex couples) are left at the back of the queue.  To exclude all same – sex couples from parenting, some of whom have demonstrated extraordinary willingness to take on the most troubled children, and make a real difference in their lives, is to condemn some kids to no parents at all, putting simple sexual ideology ahead of the true best interests of the child.

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• Rockford Catholic Diocese Abandons “Best Interests of the Child” for Religious Ideology
• Growth in Support for Gay Adoption More Rapid than for Gay Marriage
• The Biblical Case for Gay Marriage
• Celebrate the Value of Gay Parents
• American Academy of Pediatrics: Gay Marriage “In the Best Interests of the Children”
• The Conservative, Catholic Case for Gay Adoption

• Ferrandino: A Father’s Day wish: full equality for our family (denverpost.com)
• Gay Dads’ Brain Activity Pattern Resembles Both New Mothers And Fathers … – Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com)
• Hallmark Releases First-Ever Gay Father’s Day Card (queerty.com)
• 63 Percent Of Americans Say Gay Couples Entitled To Adopt (ontopmag.com)