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 Group Behind Ban On Gay Adoptions Begs For
Cash
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: March 24, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Little Rock, Arkansas) An umbrella group of
social conservatives trying to gather enough signatures to force a referendum
that could ban couples who are not married from adopting children in Arkansas
has launched a desperate appeal for money.
The Family Council Action Committee has sent out
an email to supporters urging them to send what they can.
"If there was any doubt about our opposition making a fight of this, we
know now that they will," wrote committee president Jerry Cox in the email
obtained by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "They’re already building a war chest to oppose
us," Cox wrote.
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 Council must collect nearly 92,000 signatures
by July to put the measure on the ballot. Cox said he expects to submit more
than 100,000 names.
Cox said the money is needed to hire
professionals to gather signatures.
The organization formed to defeat the measure, Arkansas
Families First, has raised more money in the past month than the
Family Council has since July the Democrat-Gazette reports.
According to figures obtained by the paper
Families First raised almost $ 32,000 in February alone, while the Family
Council in seven months received only about $22,000 in total.
Cox in his email said opponents of the measure
are part of the so-called gay agenda - something Families First denies, pointing
out the ban would also include unmarried opposite-sex couples.
The organization's supporters include such
mainstream groups as the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the
Interfaith Council, the Arkansas Association of Social Workers, the American
Academy of Pediatricians. the Arkansas Psychological Association and the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Coalition is the same organization that was
largely responsible for the passage of an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution
banning gay marriage in 2004.
It began preparations for the adoption measure
after a bill died in the Legislature that would have barred gays from adopting
or fostering.
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."
Arkansas may have changed since the marriage
amendment was accepted by voters in 2004.
A public opinion poll taken last October found
voters divided on gay adoption.
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 survey had a margin of error of 3.5
percentage points.
©365Gay.com 2008
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