Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Getafe

Back to Writing Assignments

A Letter to the Editor, by Eli Quintana Muñoz (Av 2, 2008-2009)

Dear Editor,
 
I am an usual reader of New York Times paper, and I especially enjoy reading the columnists – their writing style is great and they are usually witty. After some years reading them, I have never been indifferent towards their commentaries. However, the other day one of the columnists shocked me with these words "adoption by gays and lesbians is not rational" and I am going to tell readers why.

Not a single study has concluded that children of lesbians or gays parents to be disadvantaged because of their parents' sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is fundamentally irrelevant to a person's capacity to be a good parent. However, love, stability, patience, an ability to create a loving home or having time to spend with a child are far more critical factors in being a good parent than a person's gender or sexual orientation.

There is no evidence to suggest that the children of lesbian and gay parents are less intelligent, suffer from more problems, are less popular or have lower self-esteem than children of heterosexual parents. In contrast, there is much evidence confirming how children frequently become victims of the foster situation, which often involves moving from temporary home to temporary home. A child stuck in permanent foster care can live in 20 or more homes by the time he or she reaches 18. It is not surprising then that long-time foster care is associated with more emotional problems, abuses, delinquency or academic problems.

What is more, the number of children in need of permanent families is huge. There are thousands of children waiting to be adopted, as the majority of parents interested in adoption are only interested in adopting infants/babies or young children without histories of ill-treatment and without physical or mental disabilities.

In any case, I can understand that sometimes ignorance, fears or insecurities can lead us astray. I just hope these actual facts make people think twice before speaking about this issue.