Like the typical career-driven college kid I am, picturing myself as a parent always seemed impossible.

And being in the selfish young adult “this is my time” phase of life, I can’t actually fathom wanting the responsibility of having children anytime soon.

Forgetting all the happiness parenting could probably bring, I even went so far as to consider never having kids. People like me need to be reminded sometimes of how cool parenting – when done well – can actually be.

My reminder came from a couple who isn’t even allowed to be parents by law in Florida. Parents who take pride in a family dinner every night, bedtime stories and showing love for everyone in the family cannot be, the state of Florida says – because they are gay.

Steve Lofton and Roger Croteau were featured on ABC’s “Primetime” because they are suing the state of Florida to overturn a ban on gay adoption. The couple is raising five children, all HIV-positive; two already adopted in Oregon.

Florida now is threatening to take away one of the children that Lofton and Croteau would like to adopt but can’t because they are gay.

Plenty of heterosexual parents in this world should not be parents because they have not cared enough about their kids and too much about themselves. Sexual preference aside, Lofton and Croteau appear to be good parents. That is the main reason why they should be allowed to adopt in Florida.

Raising five HIV-positive children could not be an easy task, but Lofton and Croteau are doing it just as every good parent should – with love. The children have never once said they are unhappy in a home with homosexual parents. Every person who wants to adopt a child should be placed under strict criteria, but one’s sexual preference should not be considered. A person can be a good parent if one is gay or straight.

What legislators in Florida seem to be saying is that it’s better for a child to grow up unadopted than be adopted by gay parents. In other words, living a life feeling unwanted is better than a loving family.

In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Rosie O’Donnell says more than 500,000 children in the United States are in foster care. With numbers that high, not allowing gay parents to adopt doesn’t seem like a sensible option.

In February, the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed adoption of children by homosexuals saying, “No data have pointed to any risk to children as a result of growing up in a family with one or more gay parents.”

The Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. criticized this statement with the response, “The sad fact is that promiscuity, domestic violence and other problems endemic to the homosexual lifestyle make these relationships inherently unstable, and thus unsuitable for the raising of children.”

Despite the fact this comment is a rash generalization and cannot be assumed for every gay couple, these problems are not unique to homosexual relationships. In fact, studies show that lesbian couples are less likely to be domestically violent than heterosexual couples.

Whether O’Donnell chose to do the interview simply because her talk show is ending in May shouldn’t be the controversy people are talking about. More people should be upset about what is happening in Florida than Rosie pretending to have a crush on Tom Cruise.

It was good that O’Donnell did the interview. Maybe now everyone who didn’t realize she is gay and loved listening to her mothering stories will realize exactly who Florida is saying can’t adopt – good parents.