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<title> Adoption Rights for Homosexuals </title>
The question if homosexuals should be allowed to adopt has been debated from time to time and has recently been under discussion on a conference held by the Social Democrats. This has brought the matter to our attention again and many voices for and against homosexuals' right to adopt have of late made themselves heard. No matter concerning children is to be taken lightly, especially not matters concerning children who are in a vulnerable position, as adopted children often are. However, I think that more often than not, when people say that they are against homosexuals adopting, they really let their prejudice speak rather than their concern whether something is beneficial or not for a child. 
	In the above mentioned article Susanne Eberstein says that she is afraid that some people are more interested in homosexual rights than children's welfare owing to the fact that they want to be politically correct and because of this the children will suffer. I do not think that people in general are so biased that they would make a decision unfavourable for children, even if they want to be politically correct. No matter how important gay rights are, it is not likely that homosexuals and those working to further their cause would stop at nothing and use children as instruments in their strife for equality.
	Eberstein further claims that we should not allow homosexuals to adopt since we do not know how children would be affected from growing up in a family with parents of the same sex. The question is then how we are supposed to find out if we have no empirical data. What we do know is that no child benefits from starvation, living in the streets or in a loveless orphanage. Is it not then desirable that as many people as possible should be willing to adopt, regardless of whether they are gay or straight. Some people fear that the children would take after their parent's example and become homosexual too, but that is a puerile argument and has little to do with reality. If that were the reason why some people are homosexuals, then there would not be many homosexuals in the world, since most children live with heterosexual parents. 
 An adopted child has to meet with many difficulties, which of course should not be ignored. Having to face a new country with different culture and customs, and people with another colour of the skin who speak a language other than one's own, can undoubtedly be strenuous for anyone. However, most children are adopted when they are babies and while they might still look different from their friends, their biggest problem, when they get older, is probably to face the fact that they have adoptive parents. Eberstein argues that since it is such a trauma for a child to be adopted we should not add to their suffering by letting parents of the same sex adopt it, seeing that the attitude prevalent in society towards homosexuals is sometimes rather negative. I strongly believe that this means that we have to change the current mentality in society rather than perpetuating it by ruling out homosexuals as adoptive parents.
The final argument Eberstein has got is that children do not want to be seen as 'different' or 'strange', and she suggests that they could be bullied in school for having two mothers or two fathers. However, this would require that children deem homosexual parents to be something abnormal or even appalling, and as far as I know no child is born with prejudices. Again the problem stems from attitudes found in society, this time manifested in the ignorant views of narrow-minded parents who pass on their opinions to their offspring. Furthermore, it is not necessarily so that children will be harassed in school for having parents of the same sex. The teacher Eva Lindvall writes in an article in Aftonbladet that she has not experienced that harassment in school is about an individual victim's family situation or background but rather group dynamics and intolerance. She, for example, has got a boy in her class with two fathers who has never been bullied or teased. Lindvall therefore concludes that children with homosexual parents do not run a greater risk of being harassed than other children.
Consequently, I think that the root of the matter is the negative attitudes that homosexuals sometimes encounter in society. The solution is not to prevent homosexuals from adopting but to change these negative attitudes. An important step towards a more open-minded society would then be allowing homosexual couples to adopt. 

In her article "Barnens bästa går före homorättigheter" in Aftonbladet, Susanne Eberstein (s), member of the Swedish Riksdag, argues that homosexuals should not be allowed to adopt children. She states that children must not be used as instruments in the struggle against prejudice and that we must postpone a decision allowing homosexuals to adopt if it is doubtful that it is beneficial for the adopted child. Eberstein claims that the adoption is often a traumatic experience in itself and to then face the negative attitudes towards homosexuals sometimes found in society might prove too much. Children, she states, do not want to be seen as different, to deviate from the norm as they might if they have two parents of the same sex.

Sources: Aftonbladet "Barnens bästa går för homorättigheter" 2001-11-03
"Barn föds inte med fördomar" 2001-11-07
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