For Those Without Kids...

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by sparky

Giving a parentless child two fathers or two mothers or one parent is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Beats being raised in an institution. Having 1 leg would suck, but it beats having two stumps.

However, I doubt if anyone, given the choice, would put having a mother and a father both raise them at number 2 or 3 on their list of ideal parenting situations.

I am of the mind that fathers and mothers both bring unique and crucial skills to the table in parenting. The balance of those often opposing energies helps to create more balanced individuals. Ideally.

Yes, ideally having a mother and father is the best possible scenario. But we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a world with far too many children who have no parents whatsoever, and I'm sorry, but I feel being raised by two fathers or two mothers is far better than being bounced from foster family to foster family, or languishing in an orphanage.

Lots of people, many through situations that are no fault of their own, find themselves raising a child as a single parent.
Is it ideal? No. But if you're loving, nurturing, supportive, and a good provider, that child will grow into a well-rounded adult, whether they had two parents of opposite genders or not.

Originally Posted by sparky

And oh yeah, walk around Chelsea, Weho, Capitol Hill, Hillcrest, or any other gay mecca city...adopting babies is the new rainbow necklace, the new Madonna record, this decade's own handerkerchief code. It's ridiculous. People take it very lightly, and it smacks of playing house and aping straight people. I find it suspect.
Can adopting a kid be a selfless and honorable choice ? Certainly. Is it often in these cases ? Sketchy. Don't get me started on the rent-a-womb or turkey baster phenomenon. The ethics of those situations are pretty damned slippery.

It all depends on the reasons it's being done.
If, as you said, these couples are doing it simply because "everyone else is," then that's a very sad thing indeed. Hopefully that's not the case... even if it appears trendy at first glance.

But I don't feel that, as gay men and women, we should limit our choices in life out of a fear that it will seem like we're trying to ape straight people.
We're not confined to club-hopping, pill-popping and promiscuous sex anymore. We don't need to straightjacket our own selves and limit our own choices. That's done enough for us.