mayo 8
PORTFOLIO
2015 Second Edition
Why gay adoption must be approved Last month, the Colombian court takes the decision of keeping limits for same-sex adoption, allowing them to adopt a kid only if it was the biological child of one of the partners. This caused different opinions among Colombian people. On one side, the LGBT community expressed their disappointment, saying the decision was not enough for them. On the other side, traditional people think that gay couples are not able to raise a child. All this opens the discussion: Should same-sex couples be parents? Have they the ability to be? Here are some arguments in favor of gay parenting. A research made by sociologists Stacey and Biblarz (2001), has shown that kids of same-sex couples, adopted or biological kids, do as well as the kids of straight couples on mental health, social functioning, school performance and, basically, well-being. Stacey and Biblarz found no differences between children raised in homes with two heterosexual parents and children raised with lesbian parents. Stacey affirms that the fact of having two parents is the key to good parenting, no matter if it is a same-sex couple or a heterosexual one. Another piece of research, made by Abbie Goldberg psychologist of Clark University
in
Massachusetts
(cited
on
Pappas, 2012) , shows that same-sex couples are more committed to take care of a child than the heterosexual ones. This is because they, actually, plan to have a child, while most of the heterosexual couples do not. According to PROFAMILIA (cited on El Heraldo, 2010), in Colombia only 48% of pregnancies are planned, and almost the 44% of this pregnancies ends in induced abortion. Also, psychological studies say that
the fact of being not planned could affect the personality and self-esteem of the child. So, why not to allow people, who really want to be parents, to adopt kids? The principal obstacle to allow gay adoption is the belief that children of lesbian and gay parents suffer higher levels of emotional and psychological harm. But, several researches prove that it is not true. In Stacey and Biblarz’s study (2001) says that they “found no significant differences between children of lesbian mothers and children of heterosexual mothers in anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and numerous other measures of social and psychological adjustment” (p. 171). Also, children raised by same-sex couples showed lower social problems, such as rule-breaking, aggressiveness or delinquency, than children raised by heterosexual couples (Gartrell & Bos, 2010). In fact, most of the kids, who had been raised with same-sex parents, grow up more tolerant and open-minded than their counterpart (Dempsey, 2013). Finally, I would like to add that the most important thing here is children. They have the right to be in a family that looks after them and that can give them the love they deserve. In Colombia, almost 6000 children are placed for adoption each year. So, if there are people who want to take care of them, we must allow it. Same-sex couples are as able to raise a child as heterosexual couples, and sometimes are even better than a single mother or father. By Yuly Andrea Gordillo
REFERENCES Dempsey, D. (December, 2013). Same-sex parented families in Australia [Electronic version]. Child Family
Community Australia Paper, No. 18 (2013) pp. 26 Embarazos No Deseados [Electronic version]. (2011) El Heraldo: Editorial. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://www.elheraldo.co/editorial/embarazos-no-deseados-30367 Gartrell, N. & Bos, H. (July 1, 2010) US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Psychological Adjustment of 17-Year-Old Adolescents [Electronic version]. Pediatrics, Vol. 126, No. 1 pp. 28 -36 Pappas, S. (2012) Why gay parents may be the best parents. In Livescience: Health. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://www.livescience.com/17913-advantages-gay-parents.html Stacey, J. & Biblarz, T. (April, 2001) (How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter? [Electronic version]. American Sociological Review, Vol. 66, No. 2 (2001), pp. 159-183
New Urbanism: A way to improve quality of life
Urban sprawl is a problem that now is affecting our environment. As a consequence of this, a new movement, called New Urbanism, was created. New Urbanism pretends to finish the urban sprawl problem by putting in practice some principles. Celebration, Florida, has adopted this movement in order to create a city friendly with the environment. The first principle is to protect the ambience. For this, New Urbanism says cities must have green zones protected for native wild life and animal. Celebration, for instance, has a greenbelt of 4700 acres to preserve wild life. The second principle is house accommodation. The movement says that is better to have multi-family houses instead of single ones spread all over the city. For this, they recommend to have the apartments close to downtown and the multi-family houses all in the same part of the city. In Celebration, the application of this principle encouraged people to socialize and also reduced traffic jams. The third principle is about transportation. For New Urbanism movement is important to create a complete transportation system to improve traffic in the city. For instance, Celebration has a public transportation system that allows people to go through the city by buses or walking. New Urbanism is a movement that should be taken in to account in the organization of a new city. This movement is good to protect the environment and help people to live better. Maybe in the future more cities could develop New Urbanism, and in that way improve the quality of live.
Why is better to growing up with siblings
I strongly believe that growing up with siblings is better than being an only child. I have three younger siblings and I think that most of who I am now is thanks to them. Having siblings makes people more responsible and solidary. People who grow up with siblings show better social skills. They interact better with other people. For instance, only children sometimes isolate themselves. And this is because they are not used to share with more people. Another reason for me to think that is better to growing up with siblings is that you will have always someone to your side. Siblings are, in most of the cases, used to support each other. They create a special bond, so they can trust each other. For instance, siblings with lower differences in ages tend to create friendship bonds; and in ones with bigger differences in age the younger sibling tend to see the elder sibling as a hero or role model. Brothers and sisters are, also, used to share their own things with other people. Only children, instead, are more selfish than people with siblings. Growing up in an environment where they have to share almost everything, make siblings solidary and generous.