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 Arkansas Poll Shows Tight Fight Over Gay
Adoption Ban
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: October 31, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(Little Rock, Arkansas) LGBT rights groups in
Arkansas say they believe a voter initiative that would bar gays and lesbians
from adopting or becoming foster parents can be defeated follow the release of a
new poll.
The poll, conducted by University of Arkansas,
found that 53 percent of prospective voters would approve the ban, while 42
percent would reject it. Five percent of those questioned either had no
opinion or refused to answer.
The random poll surveyed 754 adult Arkansans
by telephone between Oct. 7-18 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage
points.
The Family Council, a conservative Christian
group that was largely responsible for the passage of an amendment to the
Arkansas Constitution banning gay marriage and which is behind the adoption
measure said the poll is good news and that it will succeed in having the ban
adopted.
But LGBT rights groups say that with the error or
margin in the poll only a small number of people have to be convinced the
measure would be discriminatory.
It is a position that poll director Janine Parry
agrees with, noting that 53 percent is a very slim majority.
"Just because we don’t like something
doesn’t mean we want to outlaw it," said Parry.
"My sense, having tinkered with these
questions for a few years now, is that while most people may not desire this for
their own families, many Arkansans – both liberals and conservatives – are
still uncomfortable dictating the family arrangements of others."
On the issue of same-sex marriage, however, most
people in the state agree with the amendment passed in 2004 that bars gays from
marrying. Only 16 percent of those questioned in the new poll said gay couple should be allowed to legally marry.
On the issue of civil unions 27 percent said gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions or domestic
partnerships but not legally marry. And, 51 percent said there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple's
relationship.
Earlier this month Attorney General Dustin
McDaniel approved the title of the adoption ban initiative, after rejecting an
earlier version. (story)
His approval allows the Arkansas Family Council
to begin collecting signatures to have the measure placed on next November's
ballot.
The measure would prevent a child from being
adopted or placed in a foster home "if the individual seeking to adopt or
to serve as a foster parent is cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a
marriage which is valid under the constitution and laws of this state."
The AFC must collect about 62,000 signatures and
submit them by next July 7. The names must then be verified by the state.
The adoption referendum is similar to a bill that
died in the Legislature earlier this year.
That legislation failed, after Gov. Mike Beebe
had suggested that there were constitutional problems with the bill, although he
would not say if he intended to veto it if it were passed.
The bill was introduced following a state Supreme
Court ruling last year.
Arkansas’s Child Welfare Agency Review Board
had established a policy in 1999 that banned gay people from serving as foster
parents, and the Arkansas Supreme Court struck it down after a seven-year legal
battle between the state and the ACLU.
Several state and national child welfare groups
filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the court to strike down the exclusion
because it worked against the best interests of foster children.
In its unanimous ruling, the court said testimony
in the state's appeal demonstrated that "the driving force behind adoption
of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster
children but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias
against homosexuals."
©365Gay.com 2007
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