The Changing American Family
The article I chose was written by Natalie Angier on November 25, 2013 for the New York Times. This article was 27 pages, speaking on the changing in the American family; I was drawn to the section on same sex couples pursing the dream of raising a family. Where I grew up with the TV show Family Ties, my daughter is growing up with The Modern Family. The article I read was about a gay couple raising six children, all adopted. One parent is a lawyer and the other stays at home with the children. They are the modern family today.
Whether society likes it or not, our families are different than ever, racially, ethnically, and religiously. We have same sex parents, one parent, different colored parents, this is diversity, and this article speaks clearly on sexual orientation and the issues surrounding that. Some are concerned that children raised by same sex couples will suffer from social stigma, that they may lack conventional adult role models. Some studies, those often invoked by the culture wars of same sex marriage believe that these children are prone to lower grades, conduct disorders and drug and alcohol problems.
It is, however; through proper education and research by human service professional and advocates for same sex couples that have found that whatever problems those children display are much more likely to be from the biological parents who produced the children in the first place. Children brought up by same sex parents academically and emotionally are indistinguishable from those of heterosexual parents.
Human service professionals play a vital role in same sex couples adopting children. It is a social worker who interviews the parents seeking adoption, it is the social worker that deems the family suitable or not. Same sex couples are four times as likely as straight couples to adopt a child and six times as likely to foster, this is positive for the human services field, more children out of the system...