PRO SAME SEX ADOPTION
Marla, Andrea and Karla
Lincoln-Douglas Debate format: Planning Sheet
Affirmative: Constructive speech
Affirmative speaker 1: Marla Rodriguez
There is a huge number of orphan children that need a home in the
world. These children are waiting to be adopted by loving
parents. While at the same time there is a huge number of
gay couples who want to provide love to children by adopting
them and having a family. According to a study made by
Guttmacher Institute, 50% of pregnancies in the United
States aren’t planned, this means that most of these nonplanned babies will be left in foster cares and won’t have the
chance of having a family.
Negative: Questions for Affirmative side
Negative speaker 1: A child needs to live in a healthy
environment, by living with gay parents, these children face
rejection and social instability. How can you affirm that these
gay couples will be good parents to orphan children?
Affirmative speaker 1: Marla Rodriguez
According to several studies, these couples are willing to have a
family and they fight for this right because they want to have
children. A clear example is a story that was publish
published by NBC tells the story of how Danny Stewart and
Peter Mercurio had the chance of becoming parents 12
years ago. Stewart was in the NYC subway one day when he
saw something in the floor, which he thought that could be a
doll. But when he saw the little baby moving, he rushed and
called the paramedics. Three months later he was in court
explaining how he found the baby, when the judge asked
him if he would like to keep the baby boy, he felt confused.
Since gay marriage wasn’t even legal back then, Stewart
thought it would be complicated, but it wasn´t. He and his
couple had the baby by the holidays, and 12 years later they
are a solid and happy family. (IMPROVISE WELL)
Negative. Constructive speech
Negative speaker 1: Children are constantly bullied
because of their parents. They suffer from physical or
psychological violence in several environments because in
many countries gay couples are still not fully accepted in
society. These conflicts will affect the children and the way
they will develop themselves not only emotionally but also
professionally.
Affirmative speaker 2: Andrea
Even though children are constantly bullied because they have gay
parents, sexual acceptation has grown over the years and
people have become more tolerant about the subject. There
are more parents that start educating their children to accept
others no matter the differences. In 2010 Judith Stacey, a
NYU sociologist and Tim Biblarz, A USC sociologist, made a
study about gay parenting, in which they found no
differences between children raised in homes with two
heterosexual parents and children raised with lesbian
parents. Stacey stated that ‘’There's no doubt whatsoever
from the research that children with two lesbian parents are
growing up to be just as well-adjusted and successful" as
children with a male and a female parent." (IMPROVISE
WELL YOUR REFUTATION)
Affirmative: Questions for Negative side
Affirmative speaker 2 ANDREA:
What are the certain statistics about the percentage of adopted
children, that show data about children’s psychological
health being damaged due to the sexuality of the parents?
Negative speaker 2: There are several studies that affirm
that children who have same sex parents face bullying and
problems at school because of this situation. For example,
About 11% of gay men and 33% of gay women in Australia
have children. Most report that the biggest problem they face
is discrimination, either against them or their children. Read
about one same-sex couple who are raising two children on
the NSW north coast and about the challenges of same-sex
parenting all over Australia.
Affirmative: Rebuttal and/or refutation
Affirmative speaker 3 Karla: Since you are mentioning
Australia, there is a study that shows the exact opposite, The
Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families
collected data on 500 children nationally, up to the age of 17.
Of the 315 gay, lesbian and bisexual parents who completed
the globally recognised child health questionnaire, 80 per
cent were women. An interim report found there was no
statistical difference between children of same-sex couples
and the rest of the population on indicators including selfesteem, emotional behaviour and the amount of time spent
with parents. However, children of same-sex couples scored
higher than the national average for overall health and family
cohesion, measuring how well a family gets along.
(IMPROVISE WELL)
Negative speaker: Refute
Negative Speaker: If there are laws against sex adoption is
because they are searching to protect the children from
being in an environment that will affect them psychologically.
(IMPROVISE WELL)
Affirmative: Rebuttal
Affirmative speaker 3 MARLA: These laws that are
against same sex couple adopting children, these laws show
discrimination and very little tolerance. There is a full support
of the Human Rights Committee for equality, and there are
several laws against these types of discrimination, but gay
people deserve to be recognized as individuals capable of
providing love and stability. They should be given the right to
adopt because they are stable couples who actually want a
child. They are willing to provide him or her everything he or
she needs
A great example of discrimination against same sex couples
has been happening for a while in Michigan. Most of
the adoption services are faith-based, and they affirm
that they should protect the children they are taking
care of. These facilities state that they won’t let the
government force them to place adoptive kids in places
they find ‘’sinful’’. There is a lot of discrimination in the
process because they are taking decisions based on
their faith and not in the law. (IMPROVISE WELL)
Negative: Summary
Same Sex couples should not be given the right to adopt children
because this can affect them psychologically and physically.
Children that are in foster care are usually already mentally
unstable, and having gay parents could affect them later in
life. The cause of the refute of creating laws that allow same
sex couple to adopt, is to protect the children and assure
them they will have a family where they have a mother and a
father.
Affirmative: Summary
Affirmative speaker 1 KARLA: The legalization of gay
adoption would benefit our society because orphan children
will be given the blessing of having a loving family. This right
will make gay couples equal to heterosexual ones, giving
everyone the ability to raise a child in a loving and secure
home, and most importantly, everyone who wants a child
deserves to become a parent and should not be denied the
pleasure of raising a child. The fact that homosexual couples
are fighting so much to gain this right reflects how they will
take care of these children, since they actually want to
become parents.
Everyone deserves the love of a family, and has the right to
fight for it. Once homosexuality is accepted as every other kind of
love, every kind of family will be just another one. Love and family
have no barriers, and no one should be given the authority to
determine how it is conceived.