Emproph
07-01-2006, 10:01 AM
A spot of good news (with my classic sardonic spin of course :D).
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The Arkansas State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that homosexuals cannot be barred from becoming foster parents.
I got this as a Citizen Link article but decided to make it a new thread because it seems to be a national story. I know my dad’s office get’s USA Today, so I’m thinking a lot of Republicans / Christian right, et al, are reading this as well.
It’s kind of interesting to see the different ways they told the story. I think it also touches on the child predators thread.
Some Highlights:
USA Today July 1, 2006
Ark. governor seeks gay foster parent ban (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-01-ark-gov-ban-foster_x.htm)
The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court decision that threw out a ban on homosexuals serving as foster parents. Four people sued after the policy was put in effect in 1999. The state Child Welfare Board dropped the policy after losing a court fight in 2004.
Thursday's court ruling left open the possibility that legislators could enact a ban by law or possibly give a state board authority to do so.
But Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas, said the court ruling itself could make legislation difficult to pass. She cited language in the ruling that said there was no connection between homosexuality and a child's welfare.
A Florida ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians was upheld in a federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the ACLU. Utah and Mississippi also restrict gay adoptions.
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New York Times June 30, 2006
Court Overturns Arkansas Ban on Same-Sex Foster Parents (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/us/30gays.html?ex=1151899200&en=5d3c57367e2fcd18&ei=5087%0A)
On a vote of 7 to 0, the justices agreed with a lower court judge that the state's Child Welfare Agency Review Board, which adopted the ban in 1999, had improperly tried to regulate public morality and had violated the separation of powers between the executive branch and the
General Assembly, Arkansas's legislature.
There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual," Associate Justice Donald L. Corbin wrote in the opinion.
In addition, the court said, the testimony of a member of the child welfare board demonstrated that "the driving force behind adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against homosexuals."
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Citizen Link June 30, 2006
(Focus on the Family)
Court Says Foster Kids Do Fine in Same-Sex Homes (http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0041106.cfm)
The Arkansas State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that homosexuals cannot be barred from becoming foster parents because such placement has not been shown to harm children, The Associated Press reported.
In 1999 the Child Welfare Agency Review Board determined that foster kids would be more likely to thrive if placed in a traditional home with a husband and wife.
All seven justices declared that the board's decision to exclude gays from the foster-parenting program inappropriately imposed a moral view
Carrie Gordon Earll, director of issues analysis for Focus on the Family Action, said "It's not bias against homosexuals to recognize that children do better when they have both a mom and a dad in the home.
"There is overwhelming data that children do best with both a mom and dad. Children need the balance and role modeling of both a man and a woman.
------
Focus on the Family/Citizen Link PROPAGANDA: 3 sentences, 3 references to children, 3 references to male and female parents. Three nuclear families in three sentences. Talk about a sound bite!
(Note: This is the second time I have documented this tactic.)
It’s like saying that starving children do best with a balanced meal, not two nutritional protein bars or two nutritional carbohydrate bars at the same time. (Not the best analogy I know, but you get my point.)
This is not only their argument against gay adoption/foster care, but also against gay marriage.
They have crept along the “slippery slope” argument, behind our backs to arrive at the reality that: the legal right to see your spouse in the hospital or share property, etc., automatically results in depriving children of BOTH a mother and a father.
Ingeniously skipping an entire step in the gay marriage debate that is currently going unchallenged.
The Bulk of their argument against gay marriage is about raising children. To that extent the anti-gay marriage argument IS the anti-gay adoption argument!
______
The Arkansas State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that homosexuals cannot be barred from becoming foster parents.
I got this as a Citizen Link article but decided to make it a new thread because it seems to be a national story. I know my dad’s office get’s USA Today, so I’m thinking a lot of Republicans / Christian right, et al, are reading this as well.
It’s kind of interesting to see the different ways they told the story. I think it also touches on the child predators thread.
Some Highlights:
USA Today July 1, 2006
Ark. governor seeks gay foster parent ban (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-01-ark-gov-ban-foster_x.htm)
The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court decision that threw out a ban on homosexuals serving as foster parents. Four people sued after the policy was put in effect in 1999. The state Child Welfare Board dropped the policy after losing a court fight in 2004.
Thursday's court ruling left open the possibility that legislators could enact a ban by law or possibly give a state board authority to do so.
But Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas, said the court ruling itself could make legislation difficult to pass. She cited language in the ruling that said there was no connection between homosexuality and a child's welfare.
A Florida ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians was upheld in a federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the ACLU. Utah and Mississippi also restrict gay adoptions.
-------------------------------------
New York Times June 30, 2006
Court Overturns Arkansas Ban on Same-Sex Foster Parents (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/us/30gays.html?ex=1151899200&en=5d3c57367e2fcd18&ei=5087%0A)
On a vote of 7 to 0, the justices agreed with a lower court judge that the state's Child Welfare Agency Review Board, which adopted the ban in 1999, had improperly tried to regulate public morality and had violated the separation of powers between the executive branch and the
General Assembly, Arkansas's legislature.
There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual," Associate Justice Donald L. Corbin wrote in the opinion.
In addition, the court said, the testimony of a member of the child welfare board demonstrated that "the driving force behind adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against homosexuals."
-------------------------------------
Citizen Link June 30, 2006
(Focus on the Family)
Court Says Foster Kids Do Fine in Same-Sex Homes (http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0041106.cfm)
The Arkansas State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that homosexuals cannot be barred from becoming foster parents because such placement has not been shown to harm children, The Associated Press reported.
In 1999 the Child Welfare Agency Review Board determined that foster kids would be more likely to thrive if placed in a traditional home with a husband and wife.
All seven justices declared that the board's decision to exclude gays from the foster-parenting program inappropriately imposed a moral view
Carrie Gordon Earll, director of issues analysis for Focus on the Family Action, said "It's not bias against homosexuals to recognize that children do better when they have both a mom and a dad in the home.
"There is overwhelming data that children do best with both a mom and dad. Children need the balance and role modeling of both a man and a woman.
------
Focus on the Family/Citizen Link PROPAGANDA: 3 sentences, 3 references to children, 3 references to male and female parents. Three nuclear families in three sentences. Talk about a sound bite!
(Note: This is the second time I have documented this tactic.)
It’s like saying that starving children do best with a balanced meal, not two nutritional protein bars or two nutritional carbohydrate bars at the same time. (Not the best analogy I know, but you get my point.)
This is not only their argument against gay adoption/foster care, but also against gay marriage.
They have crept along the “slippery slope” argument, behind our backs to arrive at the reality that: the legal right to see your spouse in the hospital or share property, etc., automatically results in depriving children of BOTH a mother and a father.
Ingeniously skipping an entire step in the gay marriage debate that is currently going unchallenged.
The Bulk of their argument against gay marriage is about raising children. To that extent the anti-gay marriage argument IS the anti-gay adoption argument!