Posted on 01/13/2006 5:53:05 AM PST by sweetliberty
LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Several national and state mental health, legal and gay-rights groups will get their arguments heard by the state Supreme Court as the justices consider whether homosexuals can serve as foster parents in Arkansas.
A state judge said in 2004 that it was unconstitutional for the Child Welfare Agency Review Board to bar homosexuals from serving as foster parents. Justices on Thursday accepted four friend-of-the-court briefs filed on behalf of 18 groups wishing to weigh in.
The briefs expand on scientific, legal and social issues raised during a trial held before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox.
The child welfare board instituted the ban in March 1999, saying children should be in traditional two-parent homes because they are more likely to thrive in that environment.
Four Arkansans sued, saying homosexuals who otherwise qualified as foster parents had been discriminated against. They contended the ban violated their right to privacy and equal protection under the state and U.S. constitutions.
One brief, filed on behalf of Bishop Larry E. Maze of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas and others, agreed with the judge's decision but took exception to his finding that moral disapproval of a group might be a legitimate reason for government to impose restrictions on "a disapproved group," said Suzanne B. Goldberg of New Jersey, a lawyer who worked on the brief.
"There are many different views about morality, including about the morality of homosexuality, and so courts are in a very awkward position if they have to choose between conflicting moral views," she said Thursday. "And government cannot have different rules for groups of people depending on whether those groups are morally approved or disapproved by the majority."
Little Rock lawyer George Wise said a brief from national and state psychology associations and the National Association of Social Workers and its Arkansas chapter points out scientific study on the issue.
"There is a wealth of peer review scientific information out there which indicates that children are not harmed in any way by being parented or foster-parented by gay or lesbian parents or couples," Wise said.
Susan Sommer, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, said that group's brief argues that it would be a violation of the state and U.S. constitutions to reinstate the ban in light of an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that struck down the state's anti-sodomy law and the U.S. Supreme Court decision the following year in a similar case in Texas.
"These courts make crystal clear that these people cannot be condemned or discrimated against for their private intimacy that harms no one," she said.
Besides Lambda, the brief was filed on behalf of groups including Children of Lesbians & Gays Everywhere, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and the Stonewall Democratic Club of Arkansas.
A fourth brief was filed by the Child Welfare League of America and The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state Health and Human Services Department, said the state's argument has never been about whether homosexuals make good parents but whether the state has the legal authority to set the parameters of foster care.
"We believe that the board had the authority to make regulations that fit the interests of children in state foster care. If you had to pick an ideal situation, what would it look like," she said. "The argument was never about does a homosexual have the right to parent children in state care."
The state will file its reply to the briefs by Feb. 4, Munsell said.
Should they be allowed to be foster parents? Not in my opinion. The kids that end up in the foster care system are screwed up enough without being encouraged to explore their "sexual options." Foster parenting is not a "right." It is a service. It is about assuring the safety of children who have already been victimized. It is not about providing homosexuals another soapbox from which to proclaim their perversity.
It just figures that one of the complainants would be a bishop in the Episcopal church.
I have to get to work. Will check the thread when I get home.
Florida's law against adoption by gay parents has survived all sorts of court challenges. I wonder if the Arkansas law can be struck down, since I'm not familiar with the Arkansas Constitution.
Consider how far we can go with the argument that because there are "many moralities", the state must not favor any of them.
All you brothers and sisters who want to marry each other- head on down to the courthouse for a marriage license. No more laws against it. Ditto those who want to marry their dogs, chickens, or multiple partners. Assuming you think that such choices are moral, what is the state to intervene in your decisions?
Ark. Supreme Court to consider briefs in gay foster parents case
Considering the litigants, I'd recommend briefs, slacks and robes...
Homosexuals usually recruit instead of reproducing. They need children to raise in their lifestyle. I do not understand why any normal person would want to do that to a child.
"Normal" being the operative workd here. Of course, they want people to accept their perversion as normal, as if enough people syaing it will make it so. It's all about making them feel comfortable in their perversion, instead of the natural God-given shame that they should feel.
But what if they wear boxers............?
I still find it interesting that sodomites co-opted the word
'gay' from US culture to describe what it is they are....
The word gay takes that nasty edge off what it is they do and what it is they wish to convert as many youngsters as possible to do...that number being as many as the nation will allow.
imo
I've seen some very biased articles but no peer reviewed scientific information.
I wonder if Wise has seen the following:
Experts Worldwide Find Gay Adoption Harmful for Children
Review of Research On Homosexual Parenting, Adoption, And Foster Parenting
Homosexual Parenting: Is It Time For Change?
Where Children Have No Voice: The 'Right' of Adoption by Homosexual Partners
Dangers of Same-Sex Couples Adopting Children (Part 1)
Dangers of Same-Sex Couples Adopting Children (Part 2)
Children and homosexual adoption
Homosexual adoption
Trophy children
Amazing how the liberals scream and cry "it's for the children", yet are so supportive of homosexuals raising kids....
Most Arkansans would oppose Homosexual foster parents the same way they oppossed same-sex marriage. We elect these judges and can therefore vote them out. We need to find out which judges are liberal and get them out.
I'd like to stage a conservative activist protest outside the AR Supreme Court Building but not before the March for Life.
There was some legislation a year or two ago that prevents discriminating against homesexuals as foster parents in the state of Arkansas. There have so far been two ways around it. The first is the one I already mentioned, in which DCFS policy states that cohabitating "couples" cannot be foster parents. They must be married for for a period of at least two years. The other is that caseworkers have discretion to place or not place their kids with certain foster families, and do not have to give a reason other than not believing that the foster "family" is not a good match for the needs of a particular child or children.
I hope to be a-pinging VERY soon. Still working on getting everything up and running.
Absolutely not. There is no instance where perverted aberrant abnormal sexual behavior practicing adults should be allowed to foster parent children. If they are given that right by the court ,and by the court's own determination sexual deviancy isn't a disqualifier, how can the court deny any sexually deviant adult from applying to foster parent? If homosexuals are given that right by the court, then who can deny that same right to the pedophile, the masochist, the prostitute, the necrophiliac,etc?
While I'm sure there are plenty of homosexuals who wouldn't actively harm a child, the very fact that they choose and defend a lifestyle of perversion shows that they are not inclined to making good judgments and if they cannot make good judgments in their own behalf, what are the chances that they can make them on behalf of a child. And even if all else were equal and assuming that the queer practices his deviance in his/her home, what kind of message is that sending to an already confused and emotionally damaged child?
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