Comments on: The right to family is more than a women’s right—it’s a human right http://latinainstitute.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/the-right-to-family-is-more-than-a-womens-right-its-a-human-right/ Salud. Dignidad. Justicia. Thu, 16 May 2013 16:30:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Elizabeth http://latinainstitute.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/the-right-to-family-is-more-than-a-womens-right-its-a-human-right/#comment-6053 Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:18:16 +0000 http://latinainstitute.wordpress.com/?p=2220#comment-6053 Some of the gist of this article gets lost when the author implies that “hundreds of thousands of children” in the foster care system are just waiting to be given homes “forever”. The foster care system is NOT and should NOT be viewed as as source of children for anyone looking to exercise their right to start a family, be they LGBTQ, straight, single, paired, or whatever. This article unwittingly pits the rights of LGBTQ would-be parents with black and Latina women and parents living in poverty, an enormous percent of whose children have been removed for “neglect” (i.e. being poor, a crime in the U.S.) and being an immigrant. Their parental rights are often terminated against their will and with little competent legal counsel or economic or healthcare opportunities to provide adequately for their children. Saying that the foster case system is “far from perfect” doesn’t scratch the surface and approaches offensive. Some of these parents indeed do identify as LGBT and it doesn’t help their family court case.

Let us not also forget that the of 30,000 dollar price tag for surrogacy, very very little of it is seen by the low-income women (often immigrant, or since surrogacy is illegal in some states, a woman in a developing country like India, or an egg donor is Russia, where her rights are signed away from the get-go) who are recruited for the job.

There has got to be a better way to discuss the issue of LBGTQ people who want to have children. When advocating for right of every person to have the family that is best for them, let’s not “rob Peter to pay Paul”, as they say.

]]>