Writing for Mercatornet, Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist and internationally known expert on same-sex attraction, says moves by legistlators and homosexual activists to endorse same-sex adoption are misguided and amount to "experimenting" on children.
"Children have a right to and a need for parenting by both a father and a mother. This need should be recognized by the state and by professional groups as far more important than an adult’s supposed right to adopt."
Fitzgibbons goes on to list the results of decades of social science research as well as his years of clinical experience consulting with adoptive and foster children to show why same-sex adoption should not be promoted.
This is because same sex couples tend to be promiscuous and to have fragile unions. For instance, one of the largest studies of same sex couples revealed that only seven of 156 couples had a sexual relationship which was totally monogamous and most of those relationships lasted less than five years. Those couples who stayed together longer had some provision for outside sexual activity, he said.
Additionally, a 2010 report entitled, the US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, 40 percent of lesbian couples who had conceived a child by artificial insemination had broken up.
Another reason is because these couples may be physically healthy, Fitzgibbons writes, and cites Dutch research which found that most new HIV infections in Amsterdam occurred among homosexual men who were in steady relationships. Research also shows that same sex unions suffer a significantly higher prevalence of domestic abuse, depression, substance-abuse disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases.
"Should adopted children be placed with a couple at risk of a serious and emotionally draining illness?" he asks.
Furthermore, research shows that children thrive best in a home with both a mother and a father.
"The most important issue is the welfare of the child. Social science research has repeatedly demonstrated the vital importance of both a father and a mother for the healthy development of children and the serious risks that they face if they are raised without a mother or a father."
Mothers and fathers bring unique gifts that are essential to the health of a child, he explained. For example, mothers bring their ability to nurture and comfort while fathers offer discipline, play and encouragement to embrace life's challenges.
"Children who were deprived of maternal care during extended periods in their early lives 'lacked feeling, had superficial relationships, and exhibited hostile or antisocial tendencies' as they developed into adulthood," Fitzgibbons writes.
"Clinical experience suggests that deliberately depriving a child of its mother, motherlessness, causes severe damage because mothers are crucial in establishing a child’s ability to trust and to feel safe in relationships."
There is also no dearth of studies proving the serious psychological, academic and social problems among youth raised in fatherless families, which demonstrates the importance of the presence of the father in the home for healthy child development.
"The rights and needs of children to a mother and a father should be protected by the state. Adults do not have a right to deprive children of a father or a mother," he states.
Sadly, there is also plenty of evidence showing that children suffer when raised in same-sex households.
For instance, a 2009 study of women in New York, Boston, and San Francisco, which involved 68 women who were raised by gay or bisexual fathers and 68 women who had heterosexual fathers found that those women raised by gay or bisexual fathers were less comfortable with closeness and intimacy, were less able to trust others and experienced more anxiety in relationships than women raised by heterosexual fathers.
Although proponents of same-sex adoption like to cite a variety of studies that claim children suffer no psychological damage when raised in these households, all of these studies are either biased or flawed in some way. Proponents also like to argue that there are no studies showing evidence of harm done to children when raised by homosexual men. While this is true, it is only because these studies are rare and there are no studies that have examined the long-term effects on adult males raised by homosexual men.
"Deliberately depriving a child of a father or a mother harms the child," Fitzgibbons concludes.
"Social science research supports this view. Adoptive children have experienced early-life abandonment trauma and should be protected from the additional trauma of being exposed to a cruel social experiment. Will no one step forward to protect these children?"
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You can impact the debate on same-sex marriage and adoption in your state by becoming informed! In The Truth About Same-Sex Attraction, Dr. Fitzgibbons is joined by psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Satinover to dispel some of the most common myths about homosexuality.
