The mentality that gay Americans are not entitled to the same rights and opportunities as their heterosexual counterparts might finally be losing momentum in the realm of public opinion.

According to a recent nationwide poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 46 percent of Americans support gay adoption. And one of the nation's most prominent adoption agencies, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, also recently released a study that ultimately concluded there is no harm in placing a child with a same-sex couple.

Unfortunately, 48 percent of Americans still think discrimination is OK when it comes to gays being able to adopt.

The number of Americans who support gay adoption, which has risen from 38 percent in 1999 to 46 percent in just seven years, is promising, however.

Ironically, the question of whether gay couples can legally adopt shouldn't be about homosexuality versus heterosexuality at all.

The issue is about displaced children being placed in loving homes that will provide them with their basic needs more adequately than any state's foster care system ever could.

In Pennsylvania, single individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, are legally permitted to adopt. However, the question of whether same-sex couples can adopt is ambiguous.

Despite the fact that some states refuse to emerge from the Dark Ages, the issue of gay adoption must still be left to the states because of the drastic differences in public opinion of the issue between states.

The power to choose a stance on social issues has always been rightfully left to individual state discretion. Progress in America works in such ways.

But there is literally no scientific proof, reason or logic to back the claim that children raised by gay parents are somehow disadvantaged.

There is plenty of reason, however, to back the claim that more children would be better off living in a loving home than in no home at all.