Gay Marriage Should Be Denied

7 Pages 1840 Words

hildren. Most countries in the world deny legal marriage to gay males, including the United States, Canada, and the preponderance of Europe nation-states. The Netherlands stands alone in its legal recognition of same-sex marriage, while Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Norway grant domestic partnerships for lesbians and gay males. The state of Vermont in the United States has granted partnership rights and recognition to persons who identify themselves as lesbian or gay.

Because legal marriage is denied to most gay males in the world, however, such individuals who choose to become parents face multiple challenges. These include seeking to adopt children, achieving custody of children from former heterosexual relationships, and gaining access to insurance and other employment benefits routinely offered to heterosexual parents. Notwithstanding these and other issues, many gay men choose to become parents and do so with much success.



Gay Fathers as a Distinct Group
Virtually no data exist on the prevalence of gay parenting among non-Caucasians and non-Western Europeans. Even in the United States, it is difficult to estimate the number of gay male parents due to ongoing prejudice and discrimination that may compel some to mask their sexual identity in certain contexts. In the United States, however, between one and two million gay men are parents, and these men are parenting approximately two to four million children (Patterson and Chan 1996). Gay males who act as parents include a diverse group in terms of age, ethnicity, level of education, socioeconomic status, physical ability, and religious or spiritual background. Their differences notwithstanding, the group contends with issues unique to their sexual orientation. Some of the factors th...