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Loading ...Protest calls for repeal of Arkansas anti-gay adoption measure
11.24.2008 10:33am EST
(Little Rock, Arkansas) Opponents of a voter approved measure banning unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children in Arkansas are calling on lawmakers to overturn it.
About 300 people gathered at the Capitol to denounce the ban, known as Act 1 and approved Nov. 4 by voters. Act 1 does not have the power of a constitutional amendment, but does change state law to make fostering and adoption by unmarried people illegal.A two-thirds vote by the legislature could overturn it.
Protesters carried signs saying “Kids need loving homes: Repeal Act 1.” The rally was organized by a number of LGBT rights groups.
Among the speakers was Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen who said Act 1 ties the hands of judges to the detriment of children in state care.
“In the name of justice I am here to ask you to say to legislatures please respect the judges that the people of Arkansas have elected to do their job,” he said.
Griffen, who also is a pastor, drew on Biblical references to criticize Act 1, referencing Jesus and Naomi and Ruth from the Old Testament, saying “[none of them] would be allowed to foster or adopt a child according to Act 1.”
Act 1 passed by 57 percent of votes. The voter initiative was organized by the socially conservative group behind the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Although it does not specifically mention same-sex couples, Act 1’s target was gay pairs and grew out of a controversial 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.
Please up hold the will of the people of your fine State! Gay couples should not have the right to be Parents of any children. our chidren are far to precious to take a chance on there well being. There are so many married couples that want to adopt children, there is no need to risk the well being of not even one child. Personally knowing people who grew up in a same sex house hold, they are and were hurt, tho they love the adults in there existance. Its unexceptable! And even thuogh some same couples might make wonderful parents, what about the few that are sexual deviants, that will stay under the radar and cause major harm to the innocent youngsters? tho it might not be fair, we must protect each and every child from any possible torment. Take no chances period!
Eva Said: “TigerTzu, The welfare of the children is the agenda they are not keeping these children from being adopted. Just not adopted by gays.”
Eva, thank you for illustrating my point. Your comment shows the depths of your ignorance and the heights of your bigotry. Ignoring all the research that has been compiled that shows that gay couples make just as good, if not better, parents than straight couples you demonstrate one of the most harmful and abusive issues facing many children today…blind ignorance coupled with religious hatred. You also seem to forget that ALL of these children who live as wards of the state are put there by STRAIGHT couples who didn’t have the maturity and sense of responsibility to raise the kids to whom they gave life.
“Being concerned about what’s going on in the world is part of taking care of my children. No amount of name calling will change the truth.”
The “truth” is that you are a bigot and you will probably pass this teachinjg down to your children as well. I would say they would be better off as wards of the state than to be taught that hate and prejudice are “family values”.
“You all talk about being shown hate but that’s all you’ve shown me. Not once have I called you out of your names or said anything disrespectful, I simply gave may beliefs just like you did.”
Playing the victim here wont work. Your “beliefs” are insulting and if you are too brain-dead to understand that, then that is YOUR FAILURE as a human being, not ours. When you imply that heterosexual couples are the only pairing that are fit to be parents, you insult all the gay couples that do have their own biological children. You insult all the gay couples that have adopted and provided good stable homes to the unwanted and abused children of straight couples. I find it hard to believe that you are truly so ignorant therefore I must assume you are here to inflame and incite rather than to take part in any rational discussion. As fopr the hate, as with most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
No, Eva, we like to hear from people with open minds who can have an intelligent debate. Only listening to “other gays” limits our scope and depth of understanding of the world around us. Maybe you should stop just listenig to “other breeders” and befriend some gays. And as a str8 person on a gay-themed website, if you can’t stand the heat get the hell outta the kitchen cause you’re in the minority.
Oh, I forgot gays only like to hear from other gays.Being concerned about what’s going on in the world is part of taking care of my children. No amount of name calling will change the truth. Bri, just because I didn’t mention unfit heterosexual parents doesn’t mean I don’t know they exist I simply didn’t go into depth.You all talk about being shown hate but that’s all you’ve shown me. Not once have I called you out of your names or said anything disrespectful, I simply gave may beliefs just like you did.
Thanks for backing me up, folks. Eva, the point I was trying to make seems to be obscured by your blind faith. And yes — it is blind.
I didn’t insinuate — though you decided to infer — that heterosexuals do not make fit parents nor provide stable, loving homes. I turned out just fine and last time I checked my parents are both straight. Coincidentally, my step-dad adopted me when I was a wee lad and he’s really the only father figure I can remember, so, too, I know adoptive parents can provide as much for their kids as natural parents. Bri was right in pointing out the folly of your thinking that homosexuals can be AS LOVING AND NUTURING as their heterosexual counterparts. Conversely, both heterosexual and homosexual parents can inflict great emotional, physical and mental abuse on their children. It’s the PERSON and not the SEXUALITY that determines whether or not someone makes a good parent.
This is not a perfect world in which we live and all of us try to get by the best way we can. I don’t think a child is as concerned with who their parents are so much as bigots like yourself seem concerned. It’s false concern, rooted in closemindedness. Children want a loving environment. Period. I knew a couple of people in college that were shuffled from foster home to foster home growing up and would’ve welcomed a stable environment regardless if that home had parents who were gay, straight, blue, pretty/handsome, wealthy, etc. They just wanted someone to love them unconditionally. A gay or lesbian couple is just as capable of providing that environment and relationship as a straight couple. And because gays and lesbians have to overcome so many difficulties to adopt children, you better believe those kids are cherished.
I encourage you to visit your local library and check out “Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishp Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture”, written by Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong. You’ll find that many of your beliefs are entrenched in half-truths and taken completely out of context for the period in which the words were originally written. Maybe if you open your eyes a little wider you’ll see the world in all it’s beauty — a beauty that includes the GLBT community.
Happy trolling.
Proponents of “Act 1″ assume that all children who are adopted grow up to be straight. I am acquainted with more than a few gay and lesbian people who were adopted as youngsters [most of them placed in heterosexual homes (and not necessarily without detriment)].
I notice Eva that you refused to mention the potential loving homosexual couples. Instead you refuted the point that heterosexual couples might ‘not’ be loving. While it is important to realize that not all hetero couples are bad, not all of them are good either. You need proof? If they were any kind of parent, why would they not love their children even when their children came out to them? Why would they physically abuse their children? I suspect as others have said that you are indeed a troll. A malcontent, go hug your children tonight while I and my boyfriend are left hugging the metaphorical rejection notice from the Arkansas government that they won’t allow us to give the metaphorical child a loving home. Obviously the other problem lays in the fact that we’re actually CA citizens and can’t actually adopt in AK to my 20-year old man knowledge but you see my metaphorical point right Mrs. Troll?
Eva, if you really were a loving adoptive mother, you’d spend time loving that child instead of worrying about other people. You’d be busy attending to that child instead of forsaking him for the anonymous online company of a gay website. I suspect you’re trolling here. Don’t you need to be up the road at the Church of the Poison Mind? I hear it’s snake-handling night.
Neil, I do not worship the god you mentioned. God doesn’t bring evil of any kind upon anyone.SOME of it we bring upon ourselves.
enigma, Did I say regardless of the environment? there are many loving heterosexual couples willing to adopt. I adopted a son,my sister adopted, and two friends (we’re all heterosexual) just to name a few, and our homes are loving environments.
Remember, though, that these are the same people who continue to worship a God that, according to many of them, plots the murder of their children.
Remember the murder of those poor Amish girls a year or so ago? One of the most prevalent responses at that time was, “God has a plan.” or “It was God’s will.” or “God allowed it for a reason.”
How anyone can worship such a god I don’t know . . . but it does help explain why they are so against anyone who differs from their own beliefs or behaviors.
Neil
Eva Said: “TigerTzu, The welfare of the children is the agenda they are not keeping these children from being adopted. Just not adopted by gays.”
So you’re saying it’s more important to have the children in a mom/pop environment regardless of their ability to build a loving, lasting, respectful relationship than to have a child placed in a loving mom/mom or pop/pop environment, even though a same-sex couple may be able to provide a better life? Oh, that makes perfect sense to me — I can see you and others are definitely keeping the best interests of children in mind.
TigerTzu, The welfare of the children is the agenda they are not keeping these children from being adopted. Just not adopted by gays.
As a married (for now ?) Gay couple in CA, we adopted a kid from the county of L.A. 8 years ago. It has not been easy but we know we have made it possible for this kid to have a stable life. We love him dearly. He was in 4 foster homes before he came to us at the age of 4.
He is not a perfect kid, but his therapist tells us we are doing a good job and this kid would be a “lost cause” without us. So sad kids will be kept in group homes in Arkansas because of this stupid law.
What does it say about a group that values their own hateful agenda over the welfare of children?