Gays are ruining children?

In recent notes I’ve talked about Prop 8 in California and same-sex marriage in general. I’ll step away from the same-sex marriage talk for a moment and address another anti-gay piece of legislation that passed on Election Day.

In Arkansas the people overwhelming approved of a measure to ban people that are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from adopting and/or serving as foster parents. While this law affected gays and straights alike, Jerry Cox, President of the Arkansas Family Council, the organization that led the efforts to pass this movement, has openly stated it’s an attempt to “blunt a homosexual agenda.” Cox also stated that, “the voters realized that this was about child welfare, rather than the rights of adults.”

Hmm. Child welfare was at stake? I concur with Mr. Cox, but disagree on who actually won this battle. The State of Arkansas currently has about 3,700 children in foster care and of those only 1,000 are available for adoption. That is 3,700 children living in foster homes or in group homes. It seems to me that children lost this battle.

As mentioned earlier, this ban affects straight people also. Under this new law, any person that is “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” will not be allowed to become a foster parent or adopt a child. Let’s see how this can play out. A few examples for those like me that need to see it how it actually affects people.

Example A. Lucy and Todd are married with a girl, Sarah. They die in a car crash. Lucy’s sister Michelle is living with her long-term boyfriend but they have not married yet. Michelle wants Sarah to live with her so that she is with family and wants to eventually adopt her to gain full guardianship. Well, under Arkansas’ new law, Michelle can’t do that unless she and her boyfriend get married or they no longer live together.

Example B. Lucy and Todd are married with a girl, Sarah. They die in a car crash. Lucy’s mother Barbra wants to adopt Sarah. Barbra lives with a “man-friend.” They’ve decided to not get married because it would cut their pensions and social security benefits. Well, under this new law in Arkansas, Barbra would not be allowed to adopt or even serve as a foster home for her own grandchild.

This law is part retroactive, I guess you could say. Unmarried, cohabitating couples that have adopted will continue to be parents to their child(ren). (Thankfully, the conservatives behind this weren’t mean enough to take children away from those that already adopted.) Those that are currently going through the adoption process are now not qualified to become adoptive parents or even foster parents. And those that are currently serving as foster parents- again, straight and gay people- are to relinquish the children they have to the state as of January 1, 2009. The number of children currently in foster care is about 400.

That’s 400 children that will no longer be in an actual home, coming home to two adults caring about how their day went or two loving adults to offer them cookies and milk or congratulate them on passing their test. Think about it. That will be a total of over 4,100 children in state custody that will be living in group homes.

Who really lost or won this battle?

I keep hearing these people talk about defeating the gay agenda. I don’t really know of any gay agenda, except to gain equal rights. The only agenda I see in this country is from a conservative group that wants to continue to oppress the LGBTQ community and treat LGBTQ persons as second-class citizens.

Here is a good op-ed in the NYTimes about this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/opinion/12savage.html

Some links to my sources.


http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/11/05/ap5651085.html

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/nov/05/rural-voters-christians-back-foster-adoption-ban/

http://fanniesroom.blogspot.com/2008/11/arkansas-adoption-ban.html