Strollerderby : Arkansas Adoption Ban

Challenge to Arkansas Adoption Ban Okay'd by Judge

Shannon LC Cate — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:04:00 GMT

A judge ruling in a challenge to the Arkansas voter-approved ban on unmarried couples fostering or adopting children told an ACLU lawyer that the his claim that the ban violates constitutional rights to equal protection is a compelling one.

The ACLU argued before the judge that not only are foster children harmed by reducing the pool of available foster and adoptive parents by banning unmarried couples (both same and opposite sex), but also harms children whose parents would prefer to name such a couple as a guardian for their children in their wills.

The judge at the hearing set 7 December to hear the case in which the Arkansas Department of Human Services is the defendant.

HRC Launches All Children -- All Families Campaign

Shannon LC Cate — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:30:00 GMT

In the wake of Arkansas's ban on gay foster and adoptive parenting and Miami-Dade's ruling against Florida's similar ban, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) launches a new adoption "awareness" campaign to increase opportunities for children who need them to find permanent homes by expanding opportunities for glbt people to foster and adopt.

As an adoptive mom who puts myself into the public view as such, I am sometimes approached by would-be adoptive parents (not necessarily queer ones) who want to know how to vet an adoption agency's ethics. One tip I offer is to find out how open the agency is to working with queer prospective parents. Whether you are a single lesbian or a heterosexual couple legally married for ten years, it's just a good sign when an adoption agency welcomes both sorts of parents equally.

Why?

Because it's an indication that the agency is more concerned about finding a family for babies than it is to procuring babies for a certain type of "customer." Opening adoption to any and all qualified parents is a child-centered attitude towards adoption and that is the only ethical attitude, in my opinion. For me, opening adoption to glbt parents is not about anyone's right to parent. It is about every child's right to a family.

Ethica, an organization dedicated to increasing ethics in child placements agrees with me and has a statement to that effect on its website. The jury has been in on this for a while in fact, numerous professional organizations have endorsed glbt parenting for years.

The HRC has some helpful documents at their site including guidelines to adoption agencies for making themselves more welcoming to glbt parents, a short list of agencies officially participating in the campaign (not an exhaustive list of glbt-friendly agencies), letters of support for the campaign from interested organizations and other great tools.

Of course nothing can be done for the children deprived of permanent families by draconian laws like the one recently passed in Arkansas. But the more we advocate for children who need homes, the more the ethical bankruptcy of such laws will become apparent.

Image: Donita Jacobson Photography

Arkansas Adoption Ban Passes, Fails to Eliminate Queers and their Spawn from the Earth

Shannon LC Cate — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:01:00 GMT

The saddest thing about the anti-gay ballot initiatives that passed Tuesday in California (banning same-sex marriage), Florida (banning even same-sex civil partnerships) and Arkansas (banning foster care and adoption by unmarried couples ie: same-sex couples) is the effect they have on the children of same-sex parents.

I don't think my partner and I would feel much need for legal marriage if we didn't have children. If we didn't have children, I'd be working full-time for my own benefits and wouldn't need hers. I'd have my own retirement security, probably be able to make the house payments if anything happened to her.

But we have two children and being able to both be their legal parents is critical to their well-being. As adoption attorney, Jennifer Fairfax points out in this article from US News and World Report,

"Adoption gives the child two legal parents, two people who have to support the child, two people that the child can inherit from. If the parent dies, the child can get security from either."

Considering the high value social conservatives place on stay-at-home parents, one would think that helping families support a stay-at-home parent by making sure that either parent can provide health benefits and other legal protections to the family's children would be a priority, leading to support for same-sex adoption and/or marriage.

My partner and I are lucky. We were able to adopt in one of a handful of jurisdictions that have strong court precedents for granting same-sex co-adoptions, though this jurisdiction does not have a law protecting these adoptions specifically. As such, either of us can give our children what straight parents take for granted. Our children can rely on the fact that if anything happens to one of us, their lives will not be further disrupted by legal questions about the status of their surviving parent.

Marriage would grant these rights automatically, as married couples always have the right to petition to adopt together and a married woman who gives birth can automatically name her legal spouse the child's other parent--regardless of whether or not the second parent is biologically related to the child. Marriage would also save us between $50,000 and $100,000 in taxes and other "fees" associated with cobbling together legal protections for our family over the years of raising our children. College fund, anyone?

When people oppose same-sex adoption, what they oppose is an idea that falls short of their ideal of two married, opposite-sex parents. But the plain truth of fact is that millions of children do not live in these kinds of families already. Banning their actual family structures from legal recognition and protection does not help those children magically attain the two-opposite-sex-parents ideal, even if you want to believe (against the word of authorities like the American Academy of Pediatrics) that ideal really is best.

What opponents of same-sex marriage and/or adoption do not understand is that these arguments are not theoretical. Banning various people from various institutional protections will not make those people go away. In fact, the "gayby" boom continues boomingly on unchecked. Every young queer high school or college student I talk to these days simply assumes that she or he will someday be a parent. It is not just a double-standard for adults gay rights opposition upholds, but a double-standard for increasing numbers of children (at least 90% of whom, for the record, will grow up to be heterosexual). When you deny me the right to marry or the right to adopt with my partner, you deny my children the same security yours take for granted. You may not like it, but my children are here now and they aren't going anywhere. Don't they deserve the same protection as their playmates?

Image note: Which child deserves the protection of two legal, married parents?

Opposing Same-Sex Fostercare and Adoption: It's Not Just for John McCain Anymore

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:37:00 GMT

John McCain told the New York Times that children were better off in orphanages than in the homes of loving same-sex parents. It seems some folks in Arkansas agree.

An Arkansas ballot initiative being pushed by conservative groups would leave more children waiting for families longer by banning adoption and foster parenting by unmarried couples. By "unmarried" everyone on both sides of the ballot initiative means "same-sex." Having already banned gay marriage (pointless, since gays could never marry in Arkansas anyway) down-ballot in the last presidential election, the radical right-wing agenda now takes aim at children in need of families. According to NPR, foster families are on the decline in the state, and banning same-sex couples from joining their ranks (or remaining in them, as the case may be) will only hurt children in need of loving care from trustworthy adults.

California's Proposition 8 is getting lots of press these final days before the election, but if you're in Arkansas, educate yourself about the Arkansas Adoption Ban before heading to the polls.