Michael’s Note:  This news appeared in my local newspaper today - one day after I wrote an article for a client on gay adoption.  I wish I’d had this information when I wrote it!

Little Rock, AR - A proposal created with the express intent of banning gay men and lesbians from fostering or adopting children was cleared on Monday August 25, 2008, ensuring that it will appear on the ballot this fall in Arkansas.  Not only would this measure make it impossible for same sex couples to adopt or join the overburdened foster care program, it would further prohibit unmarried couples who are living together from fostering or adopting as well.

Let me toss this into the crapper:  on July 24, 2008 the Arkansas News Bureau reported that the organization behind this initiative -  the Family Council Action Committee - had fallen about 4,000 short of the number of signatures required to bring the issue to the fall ballot.  They were granted a thirty-date extension by the Secretary of State’s office.

Family Council Executive Director Jerry Cox was then quoted as saying that the adoption initiative this year aims to "blunt a homosexual agenda."

Buckle Up…here comes a blunt homosexual for ya…

Those who know me are already aware that I am more of a maverick than John McCain ever hoped to be.  I’m a gay man who has had a lifelong dream of becoming a father.  Thanks to the laws of states like Florida, Michigan and presumably Arkansas, gay and lesbian people who share my passion for raising children are deemed unfit to become parents.

At this point I feel I should remind people that in 2005 there were over 115,000 children in the foster care program in the United States alone who were eligible for - but not under consideration for - adoption.  Because of the bigotry and hate of the ill-named "moral majority", many of those kids will end up aging out of the foster care system without ever knowing a stable and loving home environment.

I worked for years as a teen suicide counselor in a non-profit organization that I founded.  I spent every cent I had in savings to fund the work and even put myself in debt to continue.  I worked directly with young people in order to save their lives and never once hid my sexual identity from anyone.  That was less an act of gay pride than it was an act of prevention - I knew I’d be accused of being a pedophile and admitting that I was gay from the outset helped to curb a lot of those issues.

Does this baby make me look unfit to be a parent?

After moving to Alabama I became a sworn officer of the Family Court system and worked as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, specifically investigating abuse and neglect cases involving children in my county.

That said, I ask only this: Do those credentials sound like someone who should be disallowed the right to adopt a child?

I’m not alone in my desire to become a positive role model and to experience the joy of a child saying "I love you, daddy."  I’m also not alone in my unbridled fury against pedophiles.  Truth be told though, I am even more angry at the self-righteous bigoted homophobes who think they have the right to call me an unfit parent, spreading the poisonous gospel that homosexuality and pedophilia are synonyms.

It’s time to call BULLSHIT, folks.  Speak out and let your voices be heard and don’t stop talking until somebody listens.

Be loud and be proud,

Tags: gay glbt lgbt lesbian adoption gay adoption gay rights arkansas

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