Posted on 04/20/2005 1:04:48 PM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas could become the only state to bar gays from becoming foster parents under legislation passed Wednesday by the House.
The ban is part of a bill to revamp the state’s Child Protective Services agency. It passed 135-6 with two abstentions and now heads to the Senate.
“It is our responsibility to make sure that we protect our most vulnerable children, and I don’t think we are doing that if we allow a foster parent that is homosexual or bisexual,” said Republican Rep. Robert Talton, who introduced the amendment.
If the bill becomes law, Texas would be the only state to prohibit homosexuals and bisexuals from becoming foster parents, according to the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay Rights project.
Arkansas had barred gays from becoming foster parents, but a judge said the law was unconstitutional in December.
Under the Texas bill, anyone who applies to be a foster parent or a foster parent whose performance is being evaluated must say whether he or she is homosexual or bisexual. Anyone who answers yes would be barred from serving as a foster parent. If the person is already a foster parent, the child would be removed from the home.
Eva Thibaudeau, a social worker, said she and her partner of eight years have adopted four children and have served as foster parents to 75.
“I am just so hurt and surprised, especially now (when) we are facing an ongoing crisis of not having enough resources to take care of foster children,” she said.
The bill follows recent child slayings that occurred after caseworkers investigated suspicions of neglect or abuse and decided the children were safe to remain with their parents.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Great - go for it, Texas!
I know i'm going to get flamed for this BUT the foster care system here in NY is TERRIBLE. If there are gay/lesbian people who are in their right minds who can care for children, I'm all for it.
ping.
It's good to see so many of you here.
What we have here, as with so many topics around here, is the middle being painted by the extreme.
Are there mentally unstable gays? You betcha.
Are there gay activists who want their private lives in everyone elses face? Again, you betcha.
Are they the norm? Not at all.
It's like painting the pro-life movement with the likes of Eric Rudolph or James Kopp. The picture simply isn't realistic.
Unfortunately, much as is the case in the pro-life movement, the mentally unstable and the extremists tend to get the media spotlight, while those who don't fit those categories -- the vast majority -- live relatively mundane and boring lives just like the rest of us and thus never merit any media attention.
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
More on the law in Texas prohibiting (a much more useful word than "banning") homosexuals from being foster parents. I don't know whether TX law allows homosexuals to adopt; that should be a law if it isn't.
There is discussion on this thread, much of it in favor of homosexuals adopting or foster parenting children. If anyone has any links/facts/figures to post here, it would be very helpful.
(I'm VERY VERY busy the next few days so I can't do stuff like that...I'm lucky I'm able to sneak some time to do a little pinging...looking over my shoulder...)
Let me know if you want on/off this pinglist.
I'd much rather see them seek reparative therapy (either Christian or secular) and be restored to mental health. But failing that it's better that they do themselves in before they get a chance to molest any more children.
Any exposure of children to homosexual behavior is child abuse
Of course it is. Exposing children to any kind of sexual behavior is. Just because the parents are gay doesn't mean that the kids home life is some kind of Roman orgy.
Well, we know homosexuals offend children at disproportionately higher rates than heterosexuals. That’s a very compelling reason not to allow homosexuals to get near children. You see this in resent news stories like Study Finds Disproportionate Percentage of Illinois Foster Child Abuse is Same Sex supported by here.
Of course we’ve known this for some time from the Freund Watson study even though the good doctor had to put an unsupported qualifier at the end of his research to avoid being sanctioned by the APA’s (no negative research against homosexuals) rule. But then the old and tied specious argument that pedophilia is its own gender different from “adult” attractions has been debunked several times. See the following studies that discredit this usual leftist Liberaltarian moral relativist’s unsupported point of view.
I accept the scientific research on the matter...
Would you please post the links and citations to the scientific research are you referring to? I would be interested in reading it. Thanks!
But that's the way to bet
There is discussion on this thread, much of it in favor of homosexuals adopting or foster parenting children. If anyone has any links/facts/figures to post here, it would be very helpful.
Professional Pediatrics Group Discourages Gay Parenting
Documenting the pro-homosexual activism in the American Academy of Pediatrics
The infiltration of the 'professional' medical and scientific associations by homosexual activists was ( and continues to be ) part of a well planned and well financed campaign to redefine homosexuality as normal. The campaign began with the infiltration of the American Psychiatric Association, with the goal removing homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Make no mistake, the homosexual activists knew exactly what they were doing in the days leading up to the removal of homosexuality from the DSM. Once they had control of the American Psychiatric Association, all the other 'professional' organizations ( such as the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Mental Health Association, the AMA , the American Counseling Association, etc.) fell in line and now accept, and march to, the APA's pro-homosexual party line. Click here (then scroll down the page to "The American Academy of Pediatrics") for a list of other pro-homosexual 'professional' associations that toe each others' homosexual agenda lines.
Forcing the removal of homosexuality from the DSM was the homosexual community's greatest achievement. It permitted them to claim that "homosexuality is normal" and set the stage to present this "normalcy" to the general public via a well planned media campaign ( outlined in 'The Overhauling of Straight America' ), and to kids in the public schools via Kevin Jennings' homosexual organization GLSEN. Kids as young as kindergarten age are now being indoctrinated with "homosexuality is normal" propaganda.
It wasn't science, but rather pro-homosexual activism that was, and continues to be, the primary force behind policy changes and the politically correct statments made by the APA and the majority of the other "professional" medical and scientific organizations.
For documentation of homosexual activism in both the APA's and the AAP, see the following replies in scripter's "Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Revision 1.1)" thread:
American Psychological Association: 121, 240, 242, 300, 329, 331, 336, 357, 449, and 503.
American Psychiatric Association: 46, 139, 213, 232, 237, 239, 241, 243, 246, 300, 363, 364, 443, 449, 467, 470, 514, and 524.
American Academy of Pediatrics: 284
Additional documentation:
An excerpt from "GAY ORTHODOXY AND ACADEMIC HERESY"
Are you at my beck and call, or what?
THANKS AND BUMP!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.