Proud Parenting

LGBTQ Parents - Lesbian Moms & Gay Dads

LGBT adoptive parents are increasing – state by state

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“It’s simple,” said Julie Hoffman, adoptions administrator for the state Department of Human Services. “Now that gay couples are allowed to marry, they’ll be treated like any other married couple who’s adopting.”

While same-sex couples have long been able to adopt from private, gay-friendly adoption agencies, adopting children from the foster care system has proved more difficult in some states.

“Marriage doesn’t create this completely certain playing field,” said Ellen Kahn, director of the children, youth and families program at the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for gay rights.

And some states have taken up legislation that would allow taxpayer-funded contractors that oversee state adoptions to refuse to let gay or lesbian individuals adopt children if it conflicts with the organization’s religious beliefs. Michigan passed such a law right before the court decision.

All but Arkansas and Tennessee also had policies that did not allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt foster children jointly, according to HRC. In Alabama, where a federal court overruled the state’s ban on gay marriage, gay couples were also not allowed to adopt jointly.

But many of those states are changing their policies in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision. That’s the case in North Dakota, where the law allows single people to adopt but specifies that adopting couples must be “husband and wife.”

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Arkansas court strikes down law barring adoptions by openly gay parents

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The Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a voter-approved initiative that barred gay couples and other unmarried people living together from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Associate Justice Robert L. Brown wrote for the court that the law would encroach on adults’ right to privacy in the bedroom.

“Act 1 directly and substantially burdens the privacy rights of ‘opposite-sex and same-sex individuals’ who engage in private, consensual sexual conduct in the bedroom by foreclosing their eligibility to foster or adopt children,” Brown wrote.

The law, which was never enforced, would have effectively banned gay and lesbian couples from adopting or fostering children because they can’t legally marry in Arkansas. It also would have been extended to unmarried heterosexual couples who live together.

Voters approved the measure in 2008 after the state Supreme Court overturned a Human Services Department policy preventing gay men and lesbians from serving as foster parents in 2006.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of a group of families, arguing that the law arbitrarily bans qualified families from consideration when the state has too few foster and adoptive families. It said it knew of 29 people from a dozen families who claimed the law would have an impact on them.

[via MiamiHerald.com]

Arkansas supermarket apologizes for covering photo of Elton John and family

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A supermarket CEO & Chairman is apologizing for the actions of a homophobic store employee.

A Harps store in Arkansas censored the new issue of Us Weekly with Elton John, his husband David Furnish, and their baby son on its cover.

Now the company’s CEO & Chairman has issued the following statement: “…the decision to cover the magazine was not a corporate decision but rather was made by a store employee at one of our 65 stores. When this was brought to management’s attention, the decision was changed and the magazine was unvovered. Harps is an employee owned company. Both our employees and our customers come in all shapes and sizes, beliefs and preferences. Harps has never and would never discriminate. We are sorry that these events caused misunderstandings. – Roger Collins, CEO & Chairman

10-year old hero Will Phillips to lead Arkansas Pride Parade

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Will Phillips will serve as Grand Marshal for the Northwest Arkansas Gay Pride parade in Fayetteville this weekend. Phillips made headlines last year for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance at his school until all Americans had full equality. Last October he asked his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the Pledge, he remained sitting down. He did it again the next day, and the next day.

Since then he has traveled the country, accepted awards from gay rights groups and recording PSAs in support of equality.

WATCH Will’s interview with KFSM:

 11/16/2009
10-year old won’t pledge allegiance to a country that discriminates against gay citizens

Brave Will Phillips – an elementary school student – refuses to say the pledge of allegiance in school because of discrimination against gay people:

“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”

After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. He did it again the next day, and the next day. Fellow students have taunted Will and called him names such as “gaywad,” but he doesn’t see his protest ending any time soon.

Phillips appeared on CNN with his father, Jay, to discuss his refusal to say the pledge of allegiance.

“I’ve grown up with a lot of people and I’m good friends with a lot of people who are gay and I think they should have the rights all people should, and I’m not going to swear that they do,” the ten-year-old Phillips said.

Jay Phillips, asked if his son was prepared for the media attention, said his son saw it as an opportunity to raise awareness. “He felt that just because he’s ten years old doesn’t mean he doesn’t have opinions, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have rights, and doesn’t mean he can’t make a difference.”

WATCH:

Judge overturns Arkansas’ adoption law

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A Pulaski County circuit judge has overturned Arkansas’ law banning unmarried couples living together from adopting or fostering children.

Circuit Judge Chris Piazza said Initiated Act One, passed by voters in 2008, constituted an unwarranted invasion of privacy. The law effectively banned gays from adopting or fostering children because they are unable to legally marry in Arkansas.

From Arkansas Online:

Judge Piazza said in his two-page ruling that people in “non-marital relationships” are forced to choose between becoming a parent and sustaining that relationship. Piazza wrote that the act was “especially troubling” in how it singled out the “politically unpopular group.”

Challenge to ban on gay adoption can proceed in Arkansas

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The AP reports that an Arkansas judge has ruled that a challenge to ban on unmarried adoption, fostering can proceed.

The voter-approved ban went into effect Jan. 1. It prohibits unmarried couples who live together from adopting or fostering children. Its authors acknowledge it was aimed at gay people.

The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of more than a dozen families. They argue that the act violates their rights and that its language was misleading to voters.

Stephen Ehrenberg, a New York lawyer representing the families, said the new law already had stopped gay couples from taking in children. The ban also has stopped straight couples from naming a gay relative to take care of their children in wills, he said.

“The blanket solution of (the ban) excludes a much wider pool of foster parents, both gay and heterosexual couples as well,” Ehrenberg said. “That has already harmed children in state custody.”

Anti-gay adoption bill being considered in Kentucky

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The Fairness Campaign is opposing Kentucky Senate Bill 68 [sponsored by state Sen. Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville] that would bar gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.

The AP reports that the measure would allow children to be placed only in adoptive or foster homes with people who “are not cohabiting outside of a marriage that is legally valid in Kentucky.”

Under the legislation, children who were already placed in such homes before the legislation was enacted would not be uprooted.

Chris Hartman, head of The Fairness Campaign, said the legislation unjustly rules out potentially good parents just because they’re not married in the traditional sense.

“We literally can’t afford to play politics with these children’s lives,” Hartman said. “Hundreds of children are awaiting adoption each day in Kentucky, and it should be our politicians’ jobs to find them a home, not to categorically eliminate potential loving parents with an anti-gay political attack.”

David Edmunds, a spokesman for The Family Foundation, said the legislation isn’t discriminatory toward gay and lesbian couples because it also bars unmarried heterosexual couples from adoption and foster care.

Hartman said at least six other states – Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska and Utah – have similar laws that he called “direct attacks” on nontraditional couples. The Kentucky measure, he said, “is irresponsible on every front” and isn’t likely to pass during the current legislative session.

Take a picture of your gay family and declare yourselves equal

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Family Equality Council is responding to the disappointing losses in Arizona [Prop 102], Florida [Amendment 2], Arkansas [Act 1], and California [Prop 8] with a new campaign – called DECLARE YOUR FAMILY EQUAL.

FEC is asking families and friends across the country to submit photos of themselves holding signs declaring their equality. Submit a photo of your family holding a sign that starts “MY FAMILY…” and then you fill in the blank.

Submissions will be included in a video and posted on YouTube!

In an email to members, Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler says, “…while everyone is watching, waiting for us to react, they can see how strong, how beautiful, how truly resilient our families are.”

The deadline for submitting photos to be included in the video is soon – Sunday, November 9, 11:59pm EST.

Evangelical and born-again Christians championed gay parenting ban in Arkansas

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The Associated Press reports that exit polls – conducted for the gay parenting ban in Arkansas – showed it passed because of the support of evangelical or born-again Christians.

According to the AP, rural and evangelical voters propelled Arkansas to adopt one of the nation’s few bans against unmarried couples becoming foster or adoptive parents.

The ban passed with the endorsement of 56.9 percent of the voters. Major support came from rural counties in southwest Arkansas, where about two-thirds of voters supported the measure.

Only Pulaski County, home to Little Rock, offered a strong 15,000-vote margin opposing the ban. Washington County, home to the University of Arkansas, rejected the ban by a margin of 2,300 votes out of 65,000 cast.

The result came as a surprise to opponents. Gov. Mike Beebe had opposed the measure, citing a lack of foster homes in the state. Arkansas Families First had launched a series of television advertisements urging voters to reject the ban and a University of Arkansas poll showed 55 percent of the respondents opposed it.

Arkansas joins Utah, home to a large, conservative Mormon population, as the only states with bans against unmarried couples fostering or adopting children. Mississippi bans gay couples, but not single gays, from adopting children. Florida is the only state to completely ban gay adoption.

Arkansas voters approve gay adoption and foster ban

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Arkansas voters have approved a measure banning unmarried couples who are living together being adoptive or foster parents.

The AP reports that more than 56 percent of voters supported the ban, said by its proponents to be aimed primarily at keeping gays from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The measure’s sponsor, the Arkansas Family Council, tried to paint its as a battle against a “gay agenda.”

Opponents argued it would make it harder for the state to find the foster parents it needs to take care of children.

The measure grew out of a 2006 Arkansas Supreme Court decision that struck down a state policy banning gay foster parents. A push to enact a ban similar to the ballot measure during the last legislative session failed.

Image: PFLAG National Blog