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Loading ...Tennessee looks at new bid to ban gay couples from adopting
02.05.2009 3:51pm EST
(Nashville, Tennessee) With Republicans now in control of both houses in the Tennessee legislature GOP lawmakers say they are confident of passing a bill to ban gay couples from adopting children.
Similar bills failed in 2006 and 2008. The latest bill was filed by Sen. Paul Stanley (R) – in an effort to counter charges of gay discrimination, the measure also would apply to unmarried opposite-sex couples.The bill “prohibits any individual who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution and laws of this state from adopting a minor.”
Same-sex couples are barred from marrying in Tennessee by a constitutional amendment passed in 2006 with 80 percent approval.
Stanley also was responsible for the 2008 attempt to bar same-sex couples from adopting. The bill would not forbid single gays and lesbians from being adoptive parents – so long as they did not live with a partner.
In 2007, the state Attorney General’s office prepared a legal opinion saying there is nothing in the Tennessee constitution or in state law to prevent same-sex couples from becoming adoptive parents.
The opinion was sought by a county judge who was asked to approve and adoption by a same-sex couple in Wilson County.
The legal opinion said that under current state law anyone 18 years of age or older may adopt, assuming the adoption is found to be in the best interest of the child.”
“There is no prohibition in Tennessee statutes against adoption by a same sex couple,” it said.
The opinion also noted that before a judge grants an adoption there must be a finding that the adoptive parents “are fit persons to have the care and custody of the child.”
You know, I’m sure there are tons of good people in the South. Unfortunately, there aren’t ENOUGH of them! Otherwise, the southern states wouldn’t be in the forefront of all of this discrimination. Say all you want about the south and it’s good attributes, and I hope they change, but it is NO place to be a gay couple or to raise kids in a gay family right now.
I have many southern relatives, many of them warmer, livelier and more affectionate than my northern relatives ever were. And one of the nicest people who married into my family is this, gentle, friendly, slim, handsome, quick-witted, very cultured, well-educated, well-traveled and gay-friendly young man originally from Arkansas who can fit into any surroundings who married one of my female cousins. I love his southern accent, its warmth brings sunshine into any room.
He easily defies every stereotype about southerners. As does my cousin Sallie from Roanoke, Virginia a very nice, liberal and friendly woman. I prefer southerners to northerners, often friendlier and less “glacial.” Many I’ve dealt with have had friendlier phone manners, warmer tone of voice, some of the women sound just like an old-style southern mom, gentle, reassuring and unhurried, unstead of someone who chatters at you at rapid speed and can’t wait to get you off the phone.
Every state that tries to ban gay adoption will find that they will be spending millions of dollars each year to keep these poor kids in state supported residential care. There just aren’t enough of the “right kinds” of parents out there to give every kid who needs one a safe, secure, and hopefully loving home. Let’s hope that the Arkansas law gets struck down by the courts. That should put a chill on this foolishness for a while at least. Meanwhile, those of us who live in any conservative state need to do everything we can to stop these bills dead before they can get beyond the committee level.
So the “public spirited” members of the Tennessee legislature are spending their time keeping needy kids from decent homes! Apparently, there are no unemployment lines, no empty food pantries, no debt, very low taxes, no one losing his or her home, no bad highways, no crime, and no welfare needs in Tennessee. Good for them—the legislature can adjourn, go home to the backwoods, and return most of legislative salaries to the state!
Ultimately, it’s counter-productive to criticize any state for how well they are moving along in terms of GLBT civil rites as I’m sure everyone is doing thier best in light of their resources and the amount of intolerance they have to work against. Better to show support than to criticize.
Very Nicely Said Mike and Debra, could not have contributed better.
Thanks
~KaT
As a Nashvillian go F*ck yourselves. The very first “sit in” at a lunch counter and the beginning of integration began in Nashville. We all live side by side here. We don’t push all our blacks or Asians, or other groups into their own tidy little neighborhoods.
We don’t have a South Central or a Chinatown, or little Tokyo, or Little Italy for that matter. I have lived in New York and LA and I can tell you it is not the city of Nashville that gets this stuff passed. It’s the bulk of the “country folks” who make up a larger portion of the statewide population.
You make these broad generalizations about people who live down here and my guess is that you have never been here.
Instead of helping the smaller percentage of gays that live here fight the best you can do is this?
How about a little sympathy for those of us who fight twice as hard as many of you who just sit there and let change happen without you.
As for adoption, where is our dear friend Ana who always weighs in on us gays adopting? She is like our very own punch bowl turd around here.
Why don’t we make people apply for breeding permits and take child rearing classes before they are allowed to concieve children and then toss them out like trash?
It’s time we figure out how to have our own children.
Watch the kids pile up and the state coffers run dry. All these do gooders are the last ones to step up to the plate and adopt these poor kids. They just don’t want us to. So we won’t. But we’ll figure out ways to have our own. Invitro, surrogates, etc. When they see how many more kids are relegated to living until adulthood in homes they may wake up and finally do something.
You all make it sound like this doesn’t happen in other regions. There are 39 states that have banned gay marriage. I don’t think they are all below the Mason Dixon line.
Such a shame that these kids are being used politically.
The haters down here may be more vocal but many of you in the “better?” parts of the country have no more rights than I do living here. I have partner benefits at work. I am not discriminated in housing or employment. I am accepted by my partner’s family, my co-workers, and my employer and having lived in “better” places I can assure you it is just about the same here. The weather is better though. And Nashville is a great city to live in if you are gay.
I absolutley love the south and picked it over all the other places I have been to settle down and live out my years.
The bulk of civil rights movements have been played out in the south.
Your attitudes about the south are about the same caliber arguments as the anti-gay adoption people’s are about us homos.
What will happen if a single LBG person adopts and later gets in a same sex relationship, will the state take away the child ?
Chris…calling them “certain states” is the same, but different. I surely didn’t see the California thing coming, so it’s not all us southern states. (And I don’t really consider Florida to be Southern.) It is incredibly frustrating, but I refuse to just pack up and move to Mass. or Vermont. Their weather sucks! There is much to love about the south, and one day the culture will have to catch up with the rest of the world. There are efforts all around, but things move much, much too slow here. Make no mistake though, change IS gonna come…come hell or high water!!
Yeah, lots of sweeping generalizations. I do understand the frustration though… seems everytime we read a setback, it is coming from certain states and that gets tiresome. What these cities and states need is a more viable pressence on the GLBT map and our support. I’m sure there are many go people who have to live in very unpleasant situations that need our help – people that we would like and want to care for if we knew them.
Whoa there gays!! There are family members living here. Easy with the “wish the ENTIRE SOUTH???? would “succeed” (secede). Nashville is a great city full of affirming people. Again with the broad statements. We are getting to good at that, and that’s a bad thing. All blacks, all latinos, all southerners. It’s too much already!
Because, you know, there’s just not enough hate in the world.
With so many needy children out there, why keep gays from adopting?
http://stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com/
If we let ‘em secede again, they have to promise to STAY gone this time!
Sooner or later a Full Faith and Credit case is going to come before the US Supreme Court, and they’re going to have to fish or cut bait.
State constitutions cannot override the Federal Constitution; marriages that are legal in one state are legal in all states; adoptions that are legal in one state are legal in all states, state laws and constitutional amendments notwithstanding.
I wish the entire south would succeed. The rest of the country could do without their pro-slavery values.