Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Gay foes pledge to resurrect adoption ban
03.30.2009 10:01am EDT
(Frankfort, Kentucky) Kentucky lawmakers have ended their session without bringing to a vote a bill that would banunmarried couples from adopting or fostering children, but supporters of the measure say they will reintroduce it in the next session.
Sen. Gary Tapp (R) said he will not let the issue rest, declaring that the legislation is in the best interest of children.The measure said that anyone “cohabitating with a sexual partner outside of marriage” cannot be considered as a foster or adoptive parent.
Although the bill would affect all unmarried couples living together, it was seen as specifically targeting same-sex couples.
The bill was approved in committee in the Senate, but the GOP leadership declined to schedule a vote in the full Senate.
The House adjourned Monday without taking up the measure.
Despite Tapp’s pledge to reintroduce the bill, gay rights groups declared victory.
“We’re glad to see that this dangerous bill did not advance,” said Washington, DC-based Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. ” Very simply, very plainly, this legislation would have hurt children in Kentucky who are waiting for permanent homes with loving families.”
“The fact that this attack on children was stopped at the Senate Committee level speaks volumes to the broad-based coalition support the Fairness Campaign was able to rally around this issue,” said Chris Hartman, Director of the Louisville-based Fairness Campaign.
“We hope this victory is a sign that discriminatory anti-adoption legislation will not be considered in the Commonwealth’s future, and that if it is, the Fairness Campaign will gather and build upon our allies and mobilize them against this bill with even greater fervor.”
Tennessee’s legislature is currently considering a similar bill that would ban adoption by any person “involved in a cohabitating sexual relationship outside of a marriage.”
Four states, Florida, Mississippi, Utah, and Arkansas, currently have laws that prohibit adoption by gay or lesbian couples. Florida’s law additionally prohibits adoption by gay or lesbian individuals.
I can see a very small point in this,a certain few people could adopt children into unstable homes. Such an idea is likely, but the main affect is how many more children would be left without loving, caring homes.
Seeing something like this makes me think of all the other, more important subjects that should be being discussed instead of petty acts of hatred against undeserving citizens in a country of supposed freedom.
No doubt this is a progressive country, but as we have seen much more work is needed.
I agree with you Chris.
Also I heard that many people in Kentucky do not want this pass.
It is my understanding a lot of times the legislature likes to pass certain issues because they know the people will vote differently.
Not too many commenters yet, so I’ll use y’all to form my comment if you don’t mind.
Julia: None. And if they get the chance, they will make sure that the two-year-old and the two babies are taken away from the gay couple in your church.
Chris: They need a lot more than a psychiatrist. They are hurting children and somebody needs to kick their ass. Hard. But no, this is Kentucky, where horses are for marrying and children are too.
Alexa: I hope they die soon too. Each and every one of them.
Tiger: They declared war on us as enemies years ago, and they repeat themselves many times, publicly, every single day.
Guy: If I were a het in Kentucky, I would be so angry with these morons for telling me I could not adopt unless I was married (in their “church” preferably, of course) that I would start protest, with signs, at every single marriage where one partner was previously divorced for any reason other than fornication outside the marriage.
Julia: A lot. In California today they found three dead kids, a toddler who died in the hospital after being shot at home, and a 4-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, along with 3 adults and the shooter who killed himself. While the relationships aren’t clear yet, I’ll gamble that the shooter was intimately related to the children he murdered in cold blood. But don’t let gays form loving homes and adopt or foster children, noooo.
Bud: Are you from San Diego? Anyway, I like your spirited response. The Kentucky law would ban ALL unmarried people from adopting, and of course “we” are barred from getting married. Non-perfect kids are human garbage to these people. Their “messiah” would likely turn them into pillars of salt for their disobedience. I am not their “messiah” nor would I ever claim to belong to any religion they claim, so I am free to imagine much worse fates for those who harm children by keeping them from volunteer loving homes.
What business is it of the Legislature if unmarried couples ARE in a “sexual relationship,” and precisely HOW are they going to determine if they ARE? Bug their bedrooms? Check their sphincters for elasticity ?
White fundamentalist konservative kristianist krazies will only adopt white babies in good condition … no “special needs” children, no mixed race children, no older children. Since THEY’RE “perfect” (!), they only care about “perfect” babies.
The rest can ROT in the system for all they care!
Didn’t JESUS say something about hanging MILLSTONES around the necks of those who offend His little ones?
I agree JT. How many children are killed each year by their biological parents?
My only thoughts about laws like this is, what is it about a piece of paper that it magically gives the couple the ability to be good parents?
I would be OK with this restriction if adoption and foster care were mandatory for every married couple in Kentucky, so no child is left in state run homes for more than 90 days. Not allowing unmarried couples to adopt and provide foster care it just another loop hole to promote hate against LGBT.
It’s not a war because I say it is, but rather it is a war because of actions like these by our enemies.
The ‘people’ (and I use the term loosely) pushing this are vermin.
I can only hope their imaginary friend calls them ‘home’ as soon as possible.
These politician’s aren’t concerned with the welfare of these children at all. They are being used merely as props to foward an anti-gay agenda. Anyone who honestly believes that any child is better off in “the system” rather than being placed with a loving GLBT individual or couple is either so blinded by their hatred of GLBT people and/or has no real idea of the destructive effect not having a loving and stable person/couple has on a child. Sen. Tapp needs to see a psychiatrist.
I wonder how many of the people insisting that children must be raised by both a father and a mother have opened their homes and hearts to the many, many children in foster homes or other institutions. How many of them are willing to take on problem children? No. Better to let them languish in state care than in a loving home.
A gay couple in my church are fostering three babies that they have had since they were born. One is almost two years old now and they are fighting to adopt him. When will people open their eyes?