Two gay men in Western Australia have successfully adopted a child after being on the waiting list for three years. The adoption was made possible by an amendment to WA’s adoption laws in 2002 that enabled same-sex couples to adopt, and the child’s mother, a WA woman, participated in the selection process. While to many in the gay community, the creation of a gay parented family is welcome news, it has fueled a local debate and become part of a national discussion on gay parenting.
John Howard Comments on Gay Parents
On the national stage, Prime Minister John Howard made comments on Southern Cross broadcasting that solidified his political stance against legislation that would make it easier for gay couples to become parents. The Prime Minister announced his support for measures that would limit IVF access to heterosexual couples and voiced his opinion that heterosexual couples were the ideal parents for children.
‘It gives children the best opportunity in life,’ Prime Minister Howard said on the broadcast. ‘I know for some that sounds harsh. I don’t think it’s harsh, I think it’s something that most people believe is the desired, the ideal, outcome.’
Breaking Local News
Locally, the story of what is believed to be Australia’s first adoption by a same-sex couple through an adoption agency broke in the Sunday Times on Wednesday June 13. The Sunday Times article quoted WA Attorney-General Jim McGinty as calling the adoption ‘groundbreaking’. McGinty was later quoted in the article as saying, ‘What we need to do is have loving relationships where the parents love and care for the child. That’s the only criteria that needs to be employed, not the sexual orientation of the parent.
The story exploded into front page news on Thursday 14 June, when the West Australian ran the cover headline ‘Gay men use new law for adoption’ in combination with an anonymous opinion piece.
The West Australian article focused on the role of WA Attorney-General Jim McGinty in getting progressive gay rights legislation passed and included quotes from Gay and Lesbian Equality’s Rod Swift arguing for the rights of same-sex couples to adopt. On the other side of the argument, the West Australian quoted Australian Family Association WA president John Barich as saying that gay parents were ‘a burden’ to children.
The West Australian Opinion
At the end of the West Australian’s front page article, readers were referred to a disturbing Opinion piece on page 14 that picked up where John Howard’s comments left off. The piece, which was written anonymously, offered little evidence for socially conservative views that same-sex couples should not have equal status to heterosexual couples when it comes to parenting. Instead, the rant claimed to express ‘the general view’ of Australians, offering that as reason enough to prevent loving couples from adopting children. Moreover, the cross reference to the opinion appeared at the end of a news article on the front page, implying that the opinion piece may have expressed newspaper views as well as those of the anonymous writer.
The Opinion article stated: ‘The general view was, and remains, that homosexuals should not have to endure unnecessary legal disadvantage. However, it is most likely the overwhelming community view that when the rights of homosexuals are weighed against those of children, the latter must always prevail. There has been no indication of significant levels of community support for adoption of children by homosexual couples. The prevailing view would still be that the interests of children are best served by having both a father and mother in the home.’
The opinion article went on to declare that this adoption was the result of radical reforms by McGinty and that, ‘it is still the case that a loving partnership of a man and woman is best for bringing up children. And there is no case for homosexual adoption while such partnerships with children’s interests at heart are left childless by adoption agencies.’
What the Experts Say about Same-Sex Parents
The article’s suggestion that homosexual couples are inferior, or even unfit, parents currently has no evidence to support it. The American Psychological Association (APA) report sums up the studies of same-sex parented families and heterosexual parented families, as ‘the results of existing research comparing lesbian and gay parents to heterosexual parents and children of lesbian and gay parents to children of heterosexual parents are quite clear: Common stereotypes are not supported by the data.’ The APA report goes on to explain that further research, particularly with larger samples is still needed, but that there has not yet been one methodologically sound study that has found same-sex couples to be any less capable than heterosexual couples of raising a healthy child.
While the Opinion piece claims that many homosexual activists pursue gay adoptions and use children as pawns in a political game, it glosses over the fact that the rights of same-sex couples to adopt is about the right of loving, qualified couples to raise a family.
Moreover, the argument that public opinion is against gay adoption is not necessarily valid. As history teaches us, public opinion has often supported discrimination of minority groups, including discriminatory policies against indigenous people right here in Australia for decades.
So, while many seem quick to comment on the implications of the adoption, the real story remains that a childless couple in a loving relationship has finally adopted a child whose mother was not in a position to raise the child herself. The start of a family based on love and the commitment to give a child the best possible life is at the heart of the often talked about ‘family values.’
