Although same sex relationships have been present for quite a while, it is only recently with the contemporary age around twenty years or so that same sex families have begun to spring up. A same sex family consist of two people of the same sex whether it may be male or female sharing an intimate relationship and may also consist of a child.
In many cases especially lesbian type relationship many of the children are from previous relationships and thus they may form a re-constituted family because the new family may also want to adopt another child, or in many cases find someone who is willing to have sexual intercourse with the ‘female’ in the relationship for the sole purpose of providing a child. It is only within some countries that the Governments around the world have recently begun to allow these types of marriage, Netherlands being the first in 2001.
Although many governments have followed that trend in recent times, others tend to ask the question “What about the child? ” Whilst they may allow the marriage, adopting becomes problematic. In that the legal system would put in place so many obstacles that the family is forced to succumb to the system. This happens in many cases especially where the family consist of two males, since it is the belief of many that the child needs to get the ‘nurturing’ of a woman, so the men are denied the privilege to adopt.
However, if any of the men have a child from a previous relationship and was given full custody of the child, then the presiding judge would now rethink the status and may schedule a new hearing to reconsider the placement of the child. This comes about because the judge may now take into consideration the risk that the child is placed in. Social problems can be found within any type of family, regardless of the type/components, however the child/children still remains the most important aspect, as they are the future of society.
Many of these families tend to fall under constant scrutiny with the argument that what they are doing to their child/children psyche will affect them later on in life. Now, for many this is true or proven to be true by the many documentaries that are shown on television, written in the daily papers and in many cases preached about by the society’s majority. On the other hand in some cases the scrutiny comes from their families who may not support them as in the case of ‘Prayers for Bobby’ a Lifetime original movie. It was the family who was ashamed to have a homosexual son.
On the Tyra Banks show there was an episode in which she showed little children of about three years to seven years and they were already choosing for themselves which sex they would have preferred being born. There are many arguments and colossal sized debates about homosexuality in which some may say that it is because of genetics and others may say that people have chosen what they want to be. Although society has gone beyond the borders of discovery, they are still pre-disposed to thinking that homosexuality is actually a disease and a choice in life when in fact it is still debatable as to which it really is.
The children who are raised in any type of family are at risk, but careful consideration must be put into same sex families as the children here have two mothers/fathers. When they are in school their peers turn against them for not knowing who to call mummy and who to call daddy. The glances and weird remarks may tend to bring about violence in such a domain especially in a confused one as this. Society tends to think that the children may adopt a homosexual lifestyle when in fact the parents of these children have the same plans for them as any heterosexual family.
They want what is best for them and they do not force the child/children into the same lifestyle that they practice. An example is a couple in Arouca, the ‘female’ in the relationship is the child’s biological mother and she wants the child to lead a normal life, the entire family can be seen any where on any given day and they are viewed as normal. With the amount of ‘gay rights’ activists in the world these days, there are hardly any rights that they are denied but because of society’s third world thinking they are still frowned upon.
Many people in society feel that they are the reason for the tear in the moral fabric of society and blame them for crimes that have not been committed by them. In conclusion, although society continues to protest and to demonstrate their displeasure over the same sex union that is on the rise today, these unions are still being legalized and the families continue to grow rapidly. There are going to be many debates about how homosexuality comes about, there are going to be continued streams of violence and scrutiny of the family and the children, yet they are going to continue being around bringing with them new rights and new beliefs.
