There are a lot of people out there who will adopt children… more than 2/3 of the 3000 children in foster care in Ohio are in temporary care and aren't free for adoption. The stories about how many children out there needing to be adopted are overblown.From Matt Staver of the Liberty Council in Orlando Florida:
I have people in my office who have been on an adoption waiting list for almost three years now and they can’t adopt. The problem is the bureaucracy not allowing enough people to adopt.”You're right, dumbasses. There are plenty of people out there willing to adopt all the children in the foster care system. And, while I won't get into the fucked-up system that keeps kids in limbo, go ahead - just go AHEAD AND TRY - to tell me that the fact that there are over ONE THOUSAND children in Ohio who are free for adoption and remain in foster care are there simply because the bureaucracy is preventing families from adopting. Because there are throngs of stable families pounding down the doors at Child Welfare to adopt traumatized 12-year-olds with a history of abuse.
On the experience of children who grow up with two moms or two dads:
From Matt Staver:
Girls that are raised in a lesbian household are more likely to engage in sexual activity earlier. This opens up a hodgepodge of sexual activity… Children are already traumatized by not being with their natural moms or dads when they are placed for adoption, and then they are further traumatized by being placed with two moms or two dads. The real prime focus needs to be what’s the best interest of children.
From Robb Woronoff at the Child Welfare League of America:
This is about finding stable loving homes for children. They’re doing it [attempting to pass amendments banning gay adoption] on the backs of children – our priority is the best interrest of the children. Placement of children should be done on a case-by-case basis, and it's not done lightly. They inspect your home, check your windows for lead, put you through interviews, check references, and do a background screening before they will match you, match a child with the best possible family.
From a gay adoptive father who called in to the show:
“Yes, there are kids raised in same-sex families who are abused or traumatized. It happens with heterosexual couples, it happens in biological families. These people call themselves Christians, what the devil is Christ-like about hating people?"
On the legal rights of parents and legal protection of children in same-sex families: Kathy James, non-bio mom of a 6 year old child born to her female partner (in Florida, where she has no legal right to adopt her son):
I’m concerned about his legal protection. I am the financial supporter of our family, so it would be devastating to our family if something happened to my partner. Worst case scenario he would be placed in foster care because I have no legal standing, and so I would have no right to request visitation. Any family judge could take my child away from his only remaining parent, because my partner’s family has more rights to adopt than I do.
Woronoff:
Staver, in response:If Kathy were to die, her family would have no access to her social security benefits.
Excuse me? Did he just say that a woman and her 6-year-old child's becoming destitute because they've lost the family's only wage-earner was "just money?" And that she should be satisfied because she would be "eligible" to be her son's foster mother?If something happened to [Kathy’s] partner, she would be eligible to maintain that same relationship as a long-term foster parent. She just wouldn't be able to adopt. And the economic situation can be dealt with...
Can you hear my baseball bat hitting the tail lights right now?
And Staver again:
The issue goes beyond economics… The issue goes to the environment in which you’d be placing children – these children would be very confused about their gender identity. I don’t think we should put them into a political pressure cooker… Male-male relationships are notoriously short-lived, unlike female-female relationships.
Pardon me, but has he ever met any GLBT people? Does he have any sources that aren't dated 1977? He can't even decided what he's arguing about - sexual orientation, gender identity, politics, or just dumb-ass ignorant stereotypes.
******
Usually I can brush this stuff off and move on, but sometimes - like today - it just makes me want to lie down in the road. And my co-worker, who also heard the show, just popped in to tell me that Catholic Charities, who I ranted about here, opposed the bishop's pressure and put their foot down, refusing to stop working with same-sex families in their adoption program.
This helps, but for today, please let me know if you see my sense of humor on the floor. I seem to have misplaced it.
I know that backlash is a sign of success, but in the meantime it sure requires a lot of antacids.
-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: LilySea
COMMENT-DATE:11:52 PM
COMMENT-BODY:I really hope you just recounted the bad stuff and it didn't dominate the show--because, gee, the American Academy of Pediatrics and about 20 other highly reputable organizations say it doesn't matter whether a child has same-sex parents or not and if NPR is giving air time to the loonies with no scientific or medical backing who say we will screw up a kid's gender identity, then they've gone even further right than I tought....
COMMENT-DATE:9:30 AM
COMMENT-BODY:There's an old Kingston Trio song (I know most of you aren't ancient like me, and don't remember them) in which they sing "Everybody's got to have someone to look down on." This is about hatred and willful ignorance in the service of covering their own fear and sense of worthlessness.