Pennsylvania couples face pressure for same-sex parent adoption

Same-sex couples who are used to facing their own set of challenges when it comes to getting married may be surprised to find that some challenges are the same no matter what type of couple is involved. For instance, many parents want to know just when a newly-married couple is going to make them grandparents. For Pennsylvania couples who may have previously considered starting a family impossible, the idea of same-sex parent adoption might take some getting used to.

One newly-married same-sex couple actually found the litany of “Are you going to have kids?” when their honeymoon had barely started touching. For them, it meant the validation of their relationship–and marriage–in the eyes of their family and wedding guests. They said that when they were teenagers, they never imagined that they would enjoy the right to get married, much less the opportunity for relatives to pester them about having kids.

Other couples might find the pressure to have children irritating, or at the very least an extremely complicated issue. Some have already resigned themselves to the fact that society would not accept them as stable, loving parents and now be past the point in their lives when they actually want to start chasing after children. Others may simply have made a conscious decision not to have children, so may find the constant pestering intrusive.

Still, at least the idea of same-sex parent adoption is finding wider acceptance in American society. One recent study showed that–for the first time–most Americans support the idea of gay and lesbian couples being allowed to adopt children. 52 percent of those surveyed indicated that they were in favor of that idea, versus only 46 percent in favor back in 2008 and a mere 38 percent in 1999. And, whether a Pennsylvania same-sex couple chooses to have children or not, at least society seems to be recognizing that they should have the same right to make that choice as opposite-sex couples.

Source: The New York Times, “Gay Couples Face Pressure to Have Children,” Rachel L. Swarns, Aug. 9, 2012