When thinking of a “normal family”, one may imagine a Mother, Father, and two children, one boy and one girl. In a perfect world, these children would never talk back, always have their bed made, and eat even the greenest vegetables. The problem with this picture is the fact that it's no longer 1950 and modern families are of every shape, size, color, and assortments today. One option for a family structure that DePaulo left out, is two Dads or two Moms. This new structure for a family is starting to be widely recognized and accepted. Many opposers of gay parents may not be educated in the way these families can function just like other families if not better.

Gay parents obviously don't have the sexual reproductive organs to produce offspring. To have a family, these couples have to go through harsh, complex proceedings to adopt children. Because a couple can't adopt a child on accident, all these children are wanted. This is the different between parents of an adopted child and parents who have a surprise birth. According to CNN, “there are 1 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents raising about 2 million children in the U.S.” Thats 2 million wanted children. Opposers of Gay parents should look at the alternative, 1 million children who are without a family who could grow up in foster homes and possibly never be adopted. These parents that go through struggles every day to be on the same level as heterosexual parents are in many ways bettering our world (with international adoption) and lives of children.

In her essay, DePaulo wrote about substance abuse problems among children of all types of heterosexual families. I was not able to find a study about substance abuse among children of homosexual parents, but I have come to a conclusion based on the information presented to me in DePaulo's essay. It seems that no matter the arrangement of parents a child has, the more love they have, the more they are protected from substance abuse. The table in DePaulo's essay shows that the lowest rate of substance abuse among children are those who live with a Mother, Father, and one other relative. I believe this is because there are three people in the household to nurture and love the children. Therefore, if love is the deciding factor in the child's fate, wanted children of gay couples have everything to look forward to aside from substance abuse.