Free Republic

Missouri Lifts Restrictions On Gay Foster Parents Judge Ruled In February State Could Not Reject Applications JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Following a court mandate, Missouri officials said Tuesday that they have lifted regulations that automatically prevented homosexuals from becoming foster parents. But while the decision clears the way for gays to get licensed to care for foster children, officials with the Department of Social Services said it might still be difficult for a gay person to become a foster parent. "We're considering the biological parents' preferences, and we're also considering the abuse and neglect that occurred to the child and...

Arkansas governor optimistic on reinstatement of gay parent ban CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is optimistic the Legislature quickly will reinstate a ban on same-sex couples serving as foster parents in his state. "What we are talking about is whether the state should place a child in a relationship that is not recognized by the state as a marriage," the Republican governor, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, told The Associated Press on Saturday. The Arkansas Supreme Court last month struck down regulations banning the placement of foster children with same sex couples. The court said state...

Ark governor says Legislature should impose gay-foster-parent ban LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee on Friday said he hoped legislators would consider reimposing a ban on gay foster parents that was struck down by the state Supreme Court. "I'm very disappointed that the court seems more interested in what's good for gay couples than what's good for children needing foster care," Huckabee said through his spokeswoman Alice Stewart. Arkansas voters in 2004 approved an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution, and Huckabee said Friday, "I would expect the Legislature to deal with this since the state constitution _ by...

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said that gays can qualify as foster parents and that barring them from parenting foster children was based on one group's view of morality. In a unanimous ruling upholding a lower court decision that a state ban was unconstitutional, the high court said that no connection exists between a foster child's well-being and the sexual orientation of that child's foster parents. Justices agreed with Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox's ruling that the ban seeks to regulate "public morality" _ something the board was not given the authority to do. And the high court...

Gay couple jailed for abusing their foster children Two homosexual men who sexually abused young children placed in their foster care were jailed yesterday. Ian Wathey, 41, and his partner Craig Faunch, 32, were found guilty of a string of offences against four boys aged between eight and 14. The pair used the boys for sexual gratification within months of being approved as foster carers by Wakefield council. A mother of eight-year-old twins raised concerns about them with social services after finding a photograph of one of the boys as he used the lavatory. The authorities chose to take no...

State should know that 2 dads are better than none They're a busy family this summer, the girls off to horse camp and gymnastics camp, to family field trips at the botanical gardens and the aquarium, to the beach. They have loud laughing dinners around the table. Sometimes, the girls fight like the sisters they are: She's looking at me. Make her stop. Sundays it's church. "Who?'' Dad asks when I mention Ronda Storms. Storms is the Hillsborough commissioner who made political hay out of her crusade to keep the county from recognizing gay pride events. Most recently, she said...

Ark. defends gay foster parent ban LITTLE ROCK - Saying it's in Arkansas' interest to protect the moral and spiritual welfare of foster children, a state attorney on Thursday defended before the Arkansas Supreme Court a policy that bans gays from becoming foster parents. The Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services is appealing a 2004 decision by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox, who said it was unconstitutional for the state's Child Welfare Agency Review Board to bar homosexuals from becoming foster parents. Kathy L. Hall, an attorney for the state agency, told justices that the state already...