The Partisanship of Persuasion

Nelson Mandela once stated that, “History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children”(Nepaul). In the U.S., an estimated 107,918 children in foster care are available for adoption and 2 million LGBT are interested in adopting; however, discrimination- driven people are attempting to prohibit this process (“LGBT Adoption Statistics”). Although some people believe that gay-adoption should be prohibited, same-sex couples should have the right to adoption without narrow-minded biases getting in the way. In July 2018, the House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment, introduced by GOP Rep.

Robert Aderholt of Alabama, “that, if implemented, would allow adoption agencies to refuse gay couples based on their moral or religious beliefs” (Diaz). The law, if passed, would allow the agencies to discriminate purely on the basis of potential adopters’ nonconformity to the agencies’ ideas or religious values.

Similarly, in May earlier that year, Oklahoma Governor, Mary Fallin, signed a bill that awarded private adoption agencies the right to discriminate against LGBT couples based purely on religious biases and influences (Fotin). The frightening reality of the situation is that Oklahoma became the eighth state in the United States to pass and create a law such as this; a law that has the clear message of discrimination towards same-sex couples and restrictions of their constitutionally given right to create a family, in any which way they can. In the Declaration of Independence it states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...”; however, through restricting and discriminating against LGBT couples, adoption agencies are breaking the crucial foundational ideas the United States of America was built upon; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In the Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges, it is declared that legally, states of the United States of America are required to “ license and recognize same-sex marriage” on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (“Obergefell v. Hodges”).

Likewise, in the 1st amendment in the Constitution, the political and personal rights of a United States Citizen; freedom of expression; freedom of speech; freedom of religion, are clearly laid out. It is unlawful and in fact, unconstitutional to restrict, without just cause, a citizen’s right to use what the Constitution gave them, the right to express themselves in the ways they see fit. Therefore, because of the adoption restrictions placed on LGBT couples, adoption agencies who practice discrimination are inf act disobeying and breaking the laws of the Constitution. However, permitting LGBT couples adoption without discrimination against sexuality, would obey the legislation put in place to protect the rights of citizens.

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