According to the American Civil Liberties Union 500,000 children are in foster care and over 100, 000 of these children need to be adopted. Last year there was only enough qualified adoptive parents for 20,000. The reason why there so many children in foster is simply because states are turning a lot of good people down. Why these people are getting turned down? Not because they can't take care of the children but because they are homosexuals. Only 22 states have allowed lesbians and gay men to adopt children. Other states like Florida and New Hampshire have banned gay adoption.A sociologist would look at this from the functionalist paradigm. Within a particular society there is a great deal of consensus about what values and norms are important. A functionalist would look at the states that are totally against gay adoption and clearly see it's a issue of values and norms. Society is scared that if you let homosexuals about children then values of parenthood would be destroyed. We were always taught that parents consist of mother and father even the ideal of single parents is now accepted. Also society is basing all the stereotypes about homosexual being parents and saying that a child wouldn't grow up normal. A functionalist would also say that society wants children to be left in the closet about homosexuality. If a child goes to school and see another child say bye to its two moms then child would ask question and it might become normal and adapt to hearing sarah say I have two moms and no dad. If states would let homosexuals adopt than they would see that changes. From the functionalists perspective if we let homosexuals adopt there will be a lower number of children in foster care. Children who are in foster care long term suffer from being in the system. If we get these children into loving homes they won't have the effects from foster care like emotional problems, delinquency, substance abuse and academic problems.