I see that the current controversy over whether gays should have the right to adopt is going to be “discussed” on Xarabank.

Why does my  heart sink at the prospect? Well, because every time a highly sensitive and delicate  issue such as this has been given the Xarabank treatment it has turned into a (very high volume) media circus.  He or she who yells the loudest is heard the most. Viewers at home, trying to understand what is being said, end up being ill-informed about the real facts because the guests who actually know what they are talking about don’t always have megaphone voices.

Meanwhile, the whole thing has now ended up becoming a slanging match all over Facebook as people veer from the main crux of the argument and resort to personal attacks.  How is all this hysteria helping the children waiting to be adopted exactly?  As an observer it seems to me that it has stopped being about the children, and has ended up being purely about me, me, me, and whether I am right and you are wrong.

From what I have read, and if I have understood correctly, it is the Ethiopian government which has tightened the controls on adoption in general (and not only adoption by single people) and not the church. If that is the case, the (understandable) anger is being misdirected.

I have this feeling of dread that this gay adoption hot potato is going to spiral out of control and become a free-for-all just as the debate on divorce did.  Like everything else in this country it will probably become a partisan issue, battle lines will be drawn and it will be another case of “us” and “them”.

If this happens, I don’t think this will beneficial to the gay community at all because it is too soon after divorce was introduced; the conservative faction is still reeling from that impact and licking its wounds. Taking up this fight now will lead to a backlash and the resistance to it will be fierce.

Calmness and rational arguments are what are needed at this point, but from what I can see from the volatile arguments which are getting us nowhere, it is already too late for that.