Monday, 21 October 2013, 10:15
Family therapist Charles Azzopardi does not disagree with the concept of gay adoption, and says that he has never come across a case where children living with gay parents have experienced any sort of trouble. However, he warns that studies are not conclusive, and are often contradictory. “Some studies say that being raised by gay parents does not have any detrimental effects. Others give a different picture.”
However, he admitted that there could be cases of bullying by other children or the child could be shy about his or her domestic situation. He did point out, however, that he had dealt with many cases of violence towards, or abuse, of children from so-called “normal families”. It was, he said, similar to the divorce issue, when people were saying that divorce would lead to families splitting up, but were ignoring the fact that people had been legally splitting up through separation.
Dr Azzopardi said that were no studies to show that children raised by a gay couple could be gay themselves. This, he said, is a case of ‘nature, not nurture’.
According to the family therapist, the Civil Union Bill will not change much, because gay people are already adopting – albeit unofficially – and raising children and it is most likely that this will not have any effect on the children. He added that it was better for children to live as part of a recognised family model than in an institution. He also made the point that this is a relatively new issue and many countries still do not support adoption by gay people.
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