WILLIAM DERHAM,
Sir, - For Kevin Myers to imply (An Irishman's Diary, June 20th) that gay men and women want to adopt children only to fill some sort of menopausal black hole is, to say the very least, wrong.
Mr Myers says that "to allocate children here, there and everywhere for adoption as proof of how 'egalitarian' a society has become is. . .morally frivolous". I could not agree more. Children's futures are far too important to be decided with such a flimsy, superficial idea in mind.
However, I also believe it is just as morally frivolous to deny adopted children stable, loving and caring families just because the perspective parental make-up is different to the traditional one.
Mr Myers's common sense says "that on the whole ... It seems wiser for a black child to be raised by black parents, and so on." Perhaps it does, but it still doesn't make it the only viable option. Mr Myers seems to forget all the other successful and happy family types that exist. Single mothers, single fathers, mixed-race families, divorced parents who alternately take care of their children, etc.
As for the inevitable argument that children with gay parents will be prone to bullying, anyone who knows children knows that if they want to pick on a child they will find a reason, whether its because your mum's a teacher or your dad is gay. The solution is not to try and create a generation of "average" children who cannot be bullied about anything (you couldn't even if you wanted to), but to tackle the problem of bullying in the school, through education.
Straight man plus straight woman does not always equal a secure family environment and happy children, nor is it the only way to create such a situation.
Potential families for adopted children should be judged on their merits, on whether they can provide for the best interests of the child. If one family of two gay men or two lesbians can do that just as well or better than a "traditional" family, then why not?
If in the end they have given the child a happy childhood and looked after its welfare shouldn't that result justify the means by which it was obtained? - Yours, etc.,
WILLIAM DERHAM, Milverton, Skerries, Co Dublin.