Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Senseophobia

Senseophobia – the Unreasonable Fear of Making Sense
Maybe I’m just too close to some issues and fail to understand how ANYONE can come to different conclusions when faced with facts. It’s almost like putting someone’s hand over an open flame, allowing them to suffer third-degree burns and asking the onlookers if they understood why the person suffered the burns, only to hear several different reasons. The fact seems apparent – the burns were caused by holding the person’s hand over intense heat for a prolonged length of time. Would we be a bit shocked to hear different cause-and-effect explanations? Well, such is the case with the Lofton family of Florida. Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau have been partners for over 20 years. The registered-nurse pair met in college where they both prepared for their work in the pediatric AIDS ward of a Florida hospital. After witnessing first-hand the devastation of AIDS in the 80s and the rejection infants suffered during this time, Lofton and Croteau took on the daunting task of being foster parents to six foster children – five of whom still reside with the Loftons today. All the Lofton children were basically toss-aways of society. Lofton recalls how some of the AIDS babies would cry in their cribs and nurses would ignore their wails ignorantly afraid to interact with them. The Loftons have done an amazing job of raising a beautiful and diverse family of five – only one baby succumbed to AIDS-related illness when she was six-years old. For the record, experts predicted the AIDS-infected infants would all be dead before the age of 5. Through bouts of illness, state-wide indifference and societal judgments, the Lofton family always thrived. Now, with two of their children preparing to enter college, the Loftons faced another hurdle. The state of Florida explicitly prohibits adoption by gays. Simply put, the Loftons could keep the castaways in their care while serving as foster parents, but they could never hold the hope of adopting them. One of the Lofton children, Bert, 12, now tests negative for the HIV virus and guess how the state of Florida celebrates this little miracle? The state now suggests that Bert be removed from the Loftons since he is now deemed “adoptable” by a “normal” home. Bert has been with the Loftons since he was 9-weeks old! The self-righteous right-wingers say that ALL children fair better when raised by a two-parent, male-female arrangement, but few in this hypocritical group take on the task of providing foster care or better, come forward to be adoptive parents to the MILLIONS of children who wither-away in orphanages around the country. Various psychiatric and psychological groups have clearly stated that there is NO evidence to show that children fair better in male/female as opposed to male/male or female/female parent families. Moreover, studies have concluded that ONLY the stigma suffered by children of same-sex parents in the form of judgments spewed by outspoken opponents of the arrangement. Gays make loving parents, caring role models and supportive caregivers. Any child would opt for a stable home environment where they are loved and nurtured than the ward of an orphanage facility. As to the argument that gays/lesbians will unfairly sway these children to be gay and/or lesbian, the notion is not only unfounded, it is ridiculous. If this were the case we could say that those of US that were raised by heterosexual, male/female parents would be straight – and by golly, I’m not. It’s a case of sensophobia – folks having the overwhelming fear of situations making sense – even when we disagree with them.

On Blast
What benefit would be served by removing a teenager from a healthy gay family unit to place him/her into a heterosexual family unit when the teen recognizes the gay family unit as his own since infancy?

Keep passin’ the open windows…

8 comments:

Darius T. Williams said...

I think the answer to your question is obvious. There's no benefit. Plain and simple. This is why we have to fight so hard to move the view from right to left.

houstonmacbro said...

I am seething at reading this as well. Just another instance of grave ignorance and downright stupidity!

One Man’s Opinion said...

It's just foolishness. Where do these judgmental people think that gay children come from to begin with. Most homosexual children where raised in a traditional male/female household.

I hate stupidity. People are going to grow up to be who they are, no matter who their parents are. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but I find it hard to believe that a child will become gay just because he or she is raised in a same sex household. If that was true, then gays born in a hetrosexual household should be hetrosexual. If you get my drift.

People are stupid. The main thing is love. Everything else is just drama.

Joey Bahamas said...

This is exactly why I do the work I do. There is no way something like this should happen. These children are in a loving home...I am incensed!

JB

Anonymous said...

I think you may have posted this story a while back, or at least one similar to it, and if you have posted one similar to it, I do not know what the world is coming to if children cannot stay in a loving home...
but this is going on in Florida, and Jeb Bush probably had something to do with this so, unfortunately, I guess Florida is more for DEAD children than for chilren who are thriving in good homes...
When a society no longer cares for its most vulnerable, humanity ceases to exist.

Unknown said...

I think we all know that there is no benefit to removing the child from the home he's known. The fact that this sort of thing can happen seems to be a testament to America's laziness.

It's one thing to say that something is wrong, but it's another thing to get up and do something about it. Most folks would rather sit on the sidelines and "talk" about issues.

Floridian voters would do best to get involved, and be more aware of the issues. The Loftons, and Florida gays, should become active and work for change (although they shouldn't have to).

Sadly enough, the media portrays a pretty negative image of gays. In some ways, we even do it to ourselves. Middle America cannot see gays a "normal" because too many of our differences are highlighted and viewed as negative. This happens with many other minority groups as well.

In my mind, it's strange to fear adoption by gay parents, when we don't fear interracial adoption. If an Asian child is adopted by white parents, will the child not know that it's Asian?

My question to opponents of gay adoption and those ignorant about homosexuality is this: If it were possible for a child, adopted by gays, to "turn" gay, what would be the harm? I mean... so what? Aren't gays people? Don't we go to school, work, wake up, and go to sleep just like everyone else? Doesn't our demographic pump more money into the American economy than any other social group? Oh no... there's another gay in the world... so what? Who's it going to kill?

Nobody not really... said...

I'd rather have two loving gay parents than to be in an environment where mommy and daddy fight and cheat on each other -- or only want me there for the additional income I represent.

Anonymous said...

gay parents fuss with each other as well...lets keep it clean.