With the foster care system already staggering under the weight of so many children in it (you know, the ones the antis claim everyone wants to adopt) one would believe that states would do everything in their power to make sure the pool of available adoptive/foster parents was large and deep.
On Tuesday night, the state of Arkansas decided to make their pool a kiddie one-and not in the good way. An amendment was passed that bans unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children. Although they weren’t specifically mentioned the rural churches (rural counties overwhelmingly made up the majority, please, no Deliverance jokes) sold the ban by ratcheting up what I like to call Fear of the ‘MosTM. Since gay people can’t marry by law in the state, they remain unmarried … and therefore cannot adopt or foster.
First off, as has been noted elsewhere, with the divorce rate being what it is in this country-and it’s highest where? The Bible Belt! I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning-marriage doesn’t exactly mean “stable relationship” these days. Secondly, last time I checked prospective adoptive/foster parents are vetted pretty thoroughly (or they should be). Since people seem to believe that gay = pedophile even though overwhelming evidence exists that pedophiles usually identify as straight maybe they should be reminded of this.
Although there are gays who are just as picky about getting that Perfect White NewbornTM as others, there are many more who are far more willing to take in non-white and/or special needs kids. Locally I see a family here that always makes me smile-two gay men, one white, one Asian, with three children, all black (two of them are biological siblings). The children are happy and healthy, referring to their parents as “daddy (first name).” And the oldest? Is fifteen, a boy … with a girlfriend, who plays baseball and football for his high school. Because, you know, if you have gay parents that totally means you’re going to be gay too because straight people never have gay kids. Ow, strained an optic nerve with that eyeroll.
What pisses me off about stuff like this is that the antis go on and on about how abortion deprives prospective adoptive parents but ignore the fact that there are plenty of kids available … just not the kind most people want. There’s times when I want to travel back in time, hit up Abe Lincoln and say “dude? Really, if the south wants to leave? Let ’em.”
