One Man's Experience with Gay Adoption

by Will Z.

As a gay adoptive parent, I would like to share my story.

My son will soon be 14, we got him in our home, as a foster child when he was 12. His birth parents had their parental rights revoked when he was 11. He was bounced around through 4 different foster homes until he was placed with us.

When straight couples want to adopt, they truly want infants, then they will let their guards down and "accept" toddlers. They want "cute and cuddly". When my partner (of 16 years) and I decided to adopt, we understood that the older children are harder to place, and when we search further (through social services) we found out that children over the age of 12 have a say so in the adoptive placement, therefore we knew we wanted at least a 12 year old, so IF a problem occurred, we as a FAMILY would stand together and resolve it. There have been no issues at school, the administrative staff as well as teachers know our family situation.

Our son has 2 parents, we are not a broken home. We are not a typical family, but how many typical families line up the streets of America?

Of the over 500,000 children in foster care, more than 20% of those will become eligible for adoption, if they aren't adopted by loving homes, they age out of the system and sometimes go back to the abusive pasts that they came from.

And in closing, my sons biological father went to prison for molesting his step daughter, my child's half sister. Their mother didn't believe her own daughter, fell into DEEP depression after daddy was locked up and gave up on her responsibilities as a mother, cleaning house, washing clothes, making sure her children were bathed. My son was taking out of the home at 9, mom worked with DSS, got the kids back, and within 3 months they were in the same situation again, and were removed for good.

Maybe, just maybe, everyone should have a license to even have a baby.