Arkansas religious right tries a new tactic to discriminate against gays. Makes a confusing and bizarre proposal about adoption.
A group called Family Council wants to make sexuality neutral in the adoption and foster care decision process of Arkansas. They’re proposing legislation that allows single people, even gay ones, to adopt and serve as foster parents. But a couple living together – gay or straight – cannot adopt if voters approve the change.
“As we looked into this issue, we discovered that cohabiting heterosexual homes were not good places for children, either,” said Jerry Cox, president of the Family Council.
Unlike a Family Council bill that lawmakers rejected in the recent legislative session, the proposed ballot initiative doesn’t target gays specifically. But gays and lesbians who live as couples need marriage equality, and want to grow families. Arkansas recently approved a constitutional amendment codifying marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.
Cox said the new proposal avoids constitutional problems by not singling out homosexuals as a group.
“…we could accomplish pretty much everything that needed to be done by simply addressing the issue of cohabitation rather than brining in ‘heterosexual’ or ‘homosexual,’ either one,” he said.
“This is incredibly over-reaching,” said Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is too much government in family matters. They can’t throw out a group of potentially good parents. Because it doesn’t help, and can even harm children.”
The Family Council, which is affiliated with Colorado-based Focus on the Family, was the leading organization behind the constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.
The folks at Arkansas Blog have these random thoughts:
1) What’s to stop a couple from putting one partner out of the house long enough to complete an adoption, then reuniting – gay or straight?
2) Who is going to be the cohabitation police? The presence of an unmarried twosome in a household is not, of itself, proof of disqualification, I’d assume.
3) Most of all: where’s the fire that requires this law, except for the need for a lobby that lives on gay bashing to produce a piece of work to threaten legislators who wouldn’t go along with their hateful agenda in 2007.
I am a lesbian living in a small town of southeast Arkansas. I have been gay as long as I can remember. I have a wonderful partner of 10 years, and have been accepted by our community. Though this life style may not be accepted by all people,it is our life to live! The sadness causing heartache in the world is not because of same sex couples and teir dream of only being treated as equal,it is the people that want to make decisions for us. In case they are not aware, that is considerd passing judgement. One sin is no greater than the other, and we are ALL well aware of our faults. So… Mr. Cox, who are you? What skeletons are in your closet? Have you ever sinned? The answer is yes! You do it everytime you get on T.V. trying to push your values and beliefs on the world by portraying to have all the answers. The truth is that you would rather a child remain in the system and feel unloved until someone decides to addopt them. Or that a child needs a mother and father to be complete as a person. Did you have both parents growing up? Was your father always around? I came from a broken home, were my parents decided not to subject me to their fighting. So I was raised by my mother with as much love as both parents combined. To here your rediculous speechs on banning all gay rights, you would rather a child have no parents than two loving, and stable people that could give a child a wonderful life, even if they are two women! You would rather a child be put into a microwave, or dishwaher, or three children be thrown off a bridge, but hey they had a mom and a dad! People like you are the reason for the sadness and misery in the world, we know who we are. No matter how hard you push for your ban, it only makes us stronger, and you may be able to change the law, but you will never change us! We are a growing community of people who are created equal!!!!!!!!!
Heather Mckinzie