Gay parents

This comes from wawibf@thefridaything.co.uk. I’ve reproduced it in full to save viewers having to decide whether they want to follow a link. Whilst the language is hardly that of learned debate, I think it makes very valid reading. I see what the guy is getting at.

Where would we be without gay people? Without Oscar Wilde, AlanTuring, Gore Vidal or even Christopher Biggins, the world wouldmost definitely be a poorer place, although the precise purposeof Pete Burns remains unclear.But this week it's been impossible to avoid the unpleasant rowabout whether Catholic adoption agencies should be forced toconsider gay couples as adoptive parents under anti-discrimination legislation. The customary hackles were raised,but what the row seems to boil down to is essentially a hideouscollection of prejudices about gay people, including:1) They will try to make their children gayWritten down in black and white, this sounds utterly ridiculous.It's the implication that any adopted children will either beencouraged to be gay, or will learn from example and thus turnout gay. However, there isn't any real evidence that thisactually happens. It also suggests a horribly distorted view ofgay couples who want to adopt, and one which a tiny bit ofthought would correct. Are children going to be adopted bymilitant we're-queer-and-we're-here activists and raging scenequeens, or are they going to be adopted by ordinary people whodesperately want children but just happen to be gay?2) Gay parents are somehow not as good as heterosexual onesHaving two dads or two mums *is* a bit unusual, and let's faceit, you're going to get a few kickings in the playground. Butyou've got to toughen up at some point, and attitudes toward gaypeople are slowly changing. And if you didn't know any different,having two dads would be normal, if deeply tedious ('Dad and Dadare in the shed, tinkering with the broken strimmer. Again.').Then there's the fact that parenthood is such a complicatedbusiness that being gay is unlikely to be of paramountimportance. Surely the key thing about parenting is that parentswant to make a good job of it. What's more important, thesexuality of your parents, or getting help with your homework anddecent Christmas presents?3) Gays all live in a Frankie Goes To Hollywood videoThere are aspects of gay culture, that, without putting too finea point on it, are a bit debased - in particular the subcultureof aggressively casual sex. However, this is horribly unfair: gaypeople who want to adopt will, like heterosexual people, have toprove they can provide a stable environment for the child. It'salso deeply prejudiced - while some gay people behave like themost ridiculous stereotypes of gays, the average gay person doesnot spend all day every day wearing biker gear, growing amoustache, huffing poppers and listening to C&C Music Factory.Leaving aside religious cant, it's hard to see what thesubstantive objections to gay parents are. Sure, it's not*typical*, but then how many families are?