On my way home. “It’s now a reality on the ground,” said Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, an organization working to change adoption policy. And it’s a fact that despite legal barriers, about 19 percent of same - sex couples reported having an adopted child in the house in 2,009 up from just 8 percent in 2.000 according to the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. The reality is that in the U.S. same – sex couples are explicitly prohibited from adopting in only two states: Utah and Mississippi. However, they face significant legal problems due to the fact that they can’t get legally married in many states. On the other hand, there are many children currently waiting to be adopted. Therefore, gay couples can be a significant and stable option when it comes the large number of children waiting an adoption, also they can offer the same upbringing as heterosexual couples, and same- sex couples should have the same rights as straight couples.
Currently, over 115,000 foster children in the U.S. are in need of homes. Based on studies, there are more children who need to be adopted than there are people seeking to adopt them. Abusive parents, neglected families, or abandonment are the principal causes of the increasing number of ‘waiting children’ in the foster care according to statistics from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) from the federal government in 2001. However, prospective heterosexual parents are not doing their part to decrease this high number of children without a family. Straight parents are likely to exhibit racial and sex based preferences when they are trying to adopt a child. Consequently, it places those “different children” on a bench waiting to be accepted. Contrary to what many people believe, “Gay and lesbian couples are often willing to adopt those