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However, there are times when I catch Mr. O’Reilly making statements that contradict his own logic.
Bill O’Reilly has said on several occassions that children are better off being raised in straight, traditional homes. According to O’Reilly, traditional heterosexual homes provide “optimal” conditions for raising kids and kids who are products of heteorsexual couples are more likely to be “well adjusted” than kids raised by same-sex couples. However, O’Reilly does acknowledge that he would prefer a child with no family be adopted by a same-sex couple rather than not be adopted at all. He makes clear that gay adoption should be a “last-resort.”
Mr. O’Reilly’s logic does not make sense for the following reasons:
Let’s take a look at the types of children likely to have trouble getting adopted into a permanent home; The type of kids likely to be given to gay adoptive couples as a “last resort”:
Mentally retarded, disabled children
Children with Down Syndrome or Autism
Minority children
Children born drug-addicted
Children with mental or emotional problems
Older children (teens, etc.)
Children with HIV, cancer, or other long term illnesses.
Children that need to be adopted in a group (i.e., a set of triplets or twins, a group of close syblings)
Adoption statistics show that the most sought after kids for adoptions are white babies with no known health, emotional, or mental problems. In fact, white couples will go as far away as Russia, Albania, and the Czech Republic to find a “perfect” white baby as opposed to adopting one of the many adorable minority babies available here in the States. As a “last resort,” some white couples will look for an Asian baby but rarely ever a Latino or Black baby.
However, the kids likely to have trouble getting adopted all require some level of special attention not required by a single physically/emotionally/mentally fit white baby:
Mentally retarded, disabled children (Additional patience, special schools, medical needs)
Children with Down Syndrome or Autism (Additional patience, special schools, medical needs)
Minority children (Racial awareness and sensitivity)
Children born drug-addicted (Additional patience, special schools, medical needs)
Children with mental or emotional problems (Additional patience, special schools, medical needs, therapy)
Older children (teens, etc.) - (Often “troubled” from being in the system this long)
Children with HIV, cancer, or other long term illnesses. (Patience, extra “nursing”, medical care)
What does NOT make sense is Mr. O’Reilly asserting that:
1. Gay parents are not “as good” and “not as ideal” as straight parents
2. Kids that require the MOST attention and the BEST care possible (and likely to be among the LAST adopted) should be given to (homosexual) parents that are not “as good” as other (straight) options available
Logically speaking, if a kid requires MORE attention and care than most, wouldn’t it make sense to place that kid with the “most fit” parents possible (In O’Reilly’s estimate, straight parents)?
In my opinion, what Mr. O’Reilly is REALLY saying is that
1. He doesn’t like the idea of gay adoption
2. However, gay adoptive parents should be allowed to take the left-overs, the kids none of the straight people wanted
3. Straight couples should get “first pickings” of available kids and have first access to the “cream of the crop”
4. Gay adoptive parents are useful only as a dumping ground for kids deemed undesirable by straight couples; Gay parents can be USED as a convenient way to “dispose of” “undesirable” kids stuck in the system and eliminate taxpayer burden
5. The “last resort” kids are inherently hopeless in Mr. O’Reilly’s view; So, he cares not whether these kids are placed in “fit” or “unfit” homes. To him, these kids are “stow-aways” who can be placed anywhere.
Mr. O’Reilly’s views remind me of how this society has a “use as necessary” view of gays and lesbians. We are treated like crap until we are “needed” for something. Straight women quickly look with disdain at lesbians only to flock to their nearest gay male hairdresser that weekend. The military hates gays until we are at war: Note the military’s “stop loss” policy and lower rate of gay/lesbian dismissals since the wars started. (Gay/lesbians were despised by the military until they experienced a manpower shortage and realized that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” dismissals weren’t working to their advantage right now.)
What does “last resort” mean: We’ll first try straight couples, single mothers, single fathers, drug addicts, pedophiles, serial killers…. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll dump the kid off on some gay couple. Mr. O’Reilly’s logic is typical of heterosexuals despising gays and lesbians but using them when it’s convenient to do so.
If Mr. O’Reilly REALLY cared about the welfare of the kids stuck “in the system,” he would be requesting the United States to outlaw all adoptions abroad until we’ve found homes for our kids living in the United States. No child should be categorized as a “last resort” or “undesirable”: If a straight, white couple is unwilling to adopt an available minority children, maybe even with disabilities, here in the States, they should NOT be permitted to go “import” what they feel is a “perfect” white baby from overseas.
People who WANT a child bad enough will adopt any available child: Mr. O’Reilly knows this fact and exploits the desire of gay/lesbian couples to raise families by asserting that they should be used as a dumping grounds for otherwise “unwanted” children.
