Arkansas Supreme Court Expands Gay Adoptn Rights - WSJ

Contents:

• ACLU OF ARKANSAS DECRI ADOPTN AND FOSTER CARE BILL AS ANTI-GAY AND ANTI-CHILD
• ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT EXPANDS GAY ADOPTN RIGHTS
• ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT STRIK DOWN BAN ON GAY ADOPTNS
• DPE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LG, GAY ADOPTN RIGHTS UNCERTA SOME STAT
• ACLU OF ARKANSAS SETS THE RERD STRAIGHT ON ANTI-GAY ADOPTN AND FOSTER CARE BILL HEAD TO SENATE
• ACLU APPLDS DEFEAT OF ANTI-GAY ADOPTN AND FOSTER CARE BILL; CALLS DEFEAT A TREMENDO VICTORY FOR ARKANSAS CHILDREN
• ARKANSAS GAY ADOPTN BAN RULED UNNSTUTNAL
• LAWSU CHALLENG ARKANSAS GAY ADOPTN BAN
• ACLU CHALLENG ARKANSAS POLICY BANNG GAY AND LBIAN FOSTER PARENTS
• ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT EXPANDS GAY ADOPTN RIGHTS
• ARKANSAS GAY ADOPTN BAN RULED UNNSTUTNAL

ACLU OF ARKANSAS DECRI ADOPTN AND FOSTER CARE BILL AS ANTI-GAY AND ANTI-CHILD

Opposn of religly based refals to serve gay and lbian people? Support of homosexualy by US state?

HistoryHomosexual activy Arkansas? Homosexual activy Arkansas is legal.

Current statSce Oct 29, 2001Legal Supreme Court overturned 1977 law banng homosexual activySame-sex marriage Arkansas? Current statSce Sep 20, 2011Legal Don't Ask, Don't Tell is officially repealed throughout the Uned Stat, and gays and lbians may openly donatns by MSMs Arkansas? It prohibs unmarried upl who live together om adoptg children, effect shuttg out gay and lbian upl, who are not allowed to marry the state.

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT EXPANDS GAY ADOPTN RIGHTS

"The Arkansas Supreme Court has removed a discrimatory barrier for lovg gay and lbian upl who, child welfare experts agree, are equally able parents, " said Human Rights Campaign Print Joe Solmone. " "This ban wouldn’t even allow a relative -- gay or straight -- to foster or adopt a child wh whom they had a close relatnship, so long as that relative was unmarried and livg wh a partner, " she said. Cox said that "all available optns are still on the table, " specifilly namg the possibily of brgg the gay adoptn ban back as a state nstutnal amendment or explorg the possibily of passg a law through the legislature.

Other stat have implic bans that don't necsarily outlaw gay adoptn but make very difficult practice. " The new proposal would "force state-licensed private and church-n agenci to allow unmarried upl -- heterosexual or homosexual -- to adopt children.

After a seven-year urt battle by the ACLU, the Arkansas Supreme Court stck down a state regulatn that banned gay people and anyone livg a hoehold wh a gay adult om beg foster parents. The urt found that children are not harmed by livg wh gay or lbian parents. “Throughout the trial we prented a variety of experts who proved that the state’s jtifitns for this ban were nothg but basels myths about gay people, ” said Llie Cooper, a staff attorney wh the ACLU’s Lbian and Gay Rights Project.

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT STRIK DOWN BAN ON GAY ADOPTNS

Beg raised by gay parents don’t crease the risk of psychologil, behavral, or amic problems for children. Children of lbian and gay parents are jt as well adjted as children of straight parents. There is no factual basis for sayg that heterosexual parents might be better able to gui children through adolcence than gay parents.

DPE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LG, GAY ADOPTN RIGHTS UNCERTA SOME STAT

There are no reasons that health, safety, or welfare of a foster child might be negatively impacted by livg a foster home where there is a gay person prent. The iative stemmed om a Supreme Court se about the Arkansas's Child Welfare Agency Review Board that had tablished an admistrative policy that banned gay people om servg as foster parents.

↑ Huffgton Post, "Arkansas Adoptn Ban Overturned: Law Kept Unmarried Straight, Gay Coupl From Adoptg, " April 16, 2010, accsed March 21, 2014.

ACLU OF ARKANSAS SETS THE RERD STRAIGHT ON ANTI-GAY ADOPTN AND FOSTER CARE BILL HEAD TO SENATE

High urt fds adoptn law biased agast gay upl, " Apr 07, 2011. 1 Arkansas Gay-Adoptn Ban Hs Roadblock, Cizen Lk, September 9, 2007.

Florida’s 1977 ban on gay adoptn had only recently been overturned when the Nurs began lookg to take foster children 2011 wh the hope of ultimately adoptg same-sex upl have long been able to adopt om private, gay-iendly adoptn agenci, adoptg children om the foster re system has proved more difficult some U. “Marriage don’t create this pletely certa playg field, ” said Ellen Kahn, director of the children, youth and fai program at the Human Rights Campaign, which advot for gay some stat have taken up legislatn that would allow taxpayer-fund ntractors that oversee state adoptns to refe to let gay or lbian dividuals adopt children if nflicts wh the anizatn’s relig beliefs. Michigan passed such a law right before the urt Nurs beme faiar wh all the roadblocks when adoptg Cameron and their two other uple found they were limed which ntractors they uld work wh bee some wouldn’t allow gay and lbian upl to adopt.

And though Florida’s ban on gay adoptn was overturned 2010, the Nurs were unable to marry the state until this year. The adoptns had to be filed unr Daniel’s name only, and the uple faced the add time and expense of addg Casanova’s name Com State by StateThirteen stat—Arkansas, Geia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oh, South Dakota, Tennsee and Texas—prohibed same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court but Arkansas and Tennsee also had polici that did not allow gay and lbian upl to adopt foster children jotly, acrdg to the Human Rights Campaign. In Alabama, where a feral urt overled the state’s ban on gay marriage, gay upl were also not allowed to adopt many of those stat are changg their polici the aftermath of the Supreme Court cisn.

ACLU APPLDS DEFEAT OF ANTI-GAY ADOPTN AND FOSTER CARE BILL; CALLS DEFEAT A TREMENDO VICTORY FOR ARKANSAS CHILDREN

“Now that gay upl are allowed to marry, they’ll be treated like any other married uple who’s adoptg. ”Geia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oh and South Dakota also are changg their practic to allow married gay upl to go through the adoptn procs together. Some of them said they’re startg to update their forms to make them genr Alabama, married gay upl will be allowed to adopt a foster child, but they’ll have to wa longer than most—the state requir married upl terted adoptg to have been married for a year before begng the adoptn procs.

Mississippi is the only state that has a law that specifilly bars gay upl om adoptg foster children, and Julia Bryan, spokwoman for the state Department of Human Servic, said the law will be followed unls the legislature mak any chang when renven January.

Gay upl the state will have to ntue to have one member of the uple formally adopt the child, she said, and then the other member has to e back later to do a send parent adoptn—a siar procs to a step parent adoptg a stepchild.

ARKANSAS GAY ADOPTN BAN RULED UNNSTUTNAL

Nebraska policy prevented unmarried upl, gay or straight, om fosterg or adoptg state wards until 2012, when the state started allowg gay upl to bee foster parents, ultimately placg foster children wh 15 same-sex upl, acrdg to the Omaha World Herald. Relig IntertsAlthough the urt cisn is leadg to chang some stat, others are creatg new roadblocks to gay adoptn. Some Catholic anizatns  Illois andMassachetts shut down rather than vlate their nscience by servg gay opponents of the Michigan law say s language is too broad, givg relig anizatns leeway to discrimate agast not jt gay upl, but sgle people, terracial upl, people of other fahs or anybody who they say nflicts wh their fah.

“Discrimatn shouldn’t be happeng at all, and shouldn’t be done g taxpayer dollars, ” said Lonnie Stt, executive director of Progrs Michigan, an advocy group that lobbied agast the said the law don’t pose a disadvantage to gay upl bee the anizatns will have to refer anyone they turn down to an anizatn that is willg to serve relig groups often argue that same-sex parents uld be damagg to children, nearly all rearch has found the oppose.

A 2015 project at Columbia Universy assembled scholarly, peer-reviewed studi on the well-beg of children wh gay parents.

LAWSU CHALLENG ARKANSAS GAY ADOPTN BAN

Of 77 studi, jt four found that havg gay parents negatively impacts a stat that require agenci to work wh gay upl, there are no guarante agast discrimatn cidg whether to allow them to adopt. It was a big year for gay rights Florida.

The legislature also passed a bill that formally removed the 1977 ban on gay adoptn om law. LITTLE ROCK, AR – The Amerin Civil Liberti Unn of Arkansas nmns the cisn of an Arkansas Senate mtee this morng to send to the floor SB 959, a bill that would ban gay people and most unmarried heterosexual upl who live together om adoptg or servg as foster parents. “If you want your gay brother or your lbian nt to adopt and raise your children if you die, your wish will be disregard by the state if this bill pass.

SB 959, troduced jt months after the state Supreme Court unanimoly stck down a ban on fosterg by gay people, was approved to go to the full Senate this morng by the Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Commtee.

ACLU CHALLENG ARKANSAS POLICY BANNG GAY AND LBIAN FOSTER PARENTS

If passed, SB 959 would tegorilly ban lbian and gay Arkansans om adoptg or servg as foster parents, even if they’re relativ of the children qutn. Acrdg to a 2005 poll of 800 people nducted by the Universy of Arkansas, 65% said they approved of allowg a lbian or gay man to adopt a child if the urt found that person f all other ways to bee an adoptive parent. Not a sgle study has ever shown that havg gay or lbian parents is harmful to children.

It is beyond scientific dispute that gay people pose no greater threat than heterosexuals of mtg child sexual abe. “The notn that gay parents are somehow more likely to abe children any way not only go agast everythg that we the medil profsn know om the scientific evince and rearch, but also go agast my personal experience, ” said Dr.

“My 15 years of treatg children Arkansas nfirms that child sexual abe happens no more often wh lbian and gay parents than do wh heterosexual parents.

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT EXPANDS GAY ADOPTN RIGHTS

Arkansas’s Child Welfare Agency Review Board had tablished a policy 1999 that banned gay people om servg as foster parents, and the Arkansas Supreme Court stck down after a seven-year legal battle between the state and the ACLU.

In overturng the earlier ban, the Arkansas Supreme Court wrote, “(T)he drivg force behd adoptn of the regulatn was not to promote the health, safety, and welfare of foster children, but rather based upon the Board’s view of moraly and s bias agast homosexuals. Howard unanimoly strikg down the state regulatn banng gay people and people wh gay adults livg their hom om servg as foster parents, the Arkansas Supreme Court ced the followg fdgs of fact based on the scientific evince prented at the trial urt:. Children of lbian and gay parents are jt as well-adjted as children of heterosexual parents.

Beg raised by gay parents don’t crease the risk of psychologil, behavral, amic, genr inty, or any other sort of adjtment problems. Beg raised by gay parents don’t prevent children om formg healthy relatnships wh their peers and others. There is no factual basis for sayg that gay parents might be ls able to gui their children through adolcence than heterosexual parents.

ARKANSAS GAY ADOPTN BAN RULED UNNSTUTNAL

There is no evince that gay people, as a group, are more likely to engage domtic vlence or sexual abe than heterosexual people. The state allowed gay people to serve as foster parents Arkansas before the ban and do not know of any child whose health, safety, or welfare have ever been endangered by livg wh lbian and gay foster parents. The excln of gay people and people wh gay fay members may be harmful to children bee exclus a pool of effective foster parents.