Hey, Stangle. Welcome back. I'm not sure we ever talked five months or more ago, but I remember your avatar and am glad you're back with us.

Im fairly well convinced that licensing of gay parents would be unfair because, frankly, I've seen far more opposite-sex straight people mess up their kids than gay adoptive couples ever have. I know three gay couples with children, and in comparison to the proportionally larger number of straight ones with either adopted or body-borne kids that I know, the gay parents win the well-adjusted-kids contest hands down.

Any sort of couple can provide balance to a child. In two-parent hetero marriages, the mom and dad complement each other. One might be more nuturing and softly affectionate whereas the other might be more rambuctious and energetic. The kid benefits from those complementary differences. But I maintain that all couples have those differences, straight or gay. Look at any gay couple and see which partner has the more feminine tendencies, and you can see those differences even before kids come into the picture.
It's the balance of two complementary, in-residence, loving, psychologically healthy parents that gives kids a nice double-anchor, and two-parent families also have a financial advantage. Most of the research on this subject validates the fact that gay parents are just as good at parenting well-adjusted children, if not better, than straight ones. I personally believe that a loving gay couple who strongly wants children may be superior in lots of ways. I think adoptive parents in general, gay or straight, often have an edge on the breeders simply because they actively, consciously desire children and have to overcome several more obstacles in order to build a family. Some of us breeders actively, consciously desired children, too, but too many others do not. Anyway, I vote no licensing unless everyone has to pass the same licensing restrictions.

Maybe the true test ought to be an obstacle course. Then the folks who win, showing the strongest determination to overcome obstacles to have a family, can undergo a series of screening checks. Then, once they clear both the obstacle course and the screens, they can go procreate or adopt, whichever they choose.