News
2007-03-28
Parenting ban
dies in Ark. house
A proposal to
prohibit Arkansas gay men and lesbians and unmarried
couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents failed
twice Tuesday
A proposal to
prohibit Arkansas gay men and lesbians and unmarried
couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents failed
twice Tuesday before a committee of the state house of
representatives, the Associated Press reported.
The proposal, by
Republican senator Shawn Womack, failed in the house
judiciary committee after no one on the committee moved to
pass it. The panel had rejected an amendment Womack
offered that would have allowed gays to adopt if they
were related to the child.
Later on Tuesday,
Rep. Jon Woods, also a Republican, brought the measure
up again for the committee to reconsider, AP reported.
Representatives did not discuss the bill, and it
failed on a voice vote.
The proposal
cleared a senate committee March 12, but Tuesday's action
cast doubt on its future, and antigay activists did not know
how they would proceed.
In September the
Arkansas supreme court overturned a ban on gay foster
parents, saying it was improperly established by state
policy rather than by law and was unsupported by
evidence. Womack's proposal was an attempt to enact
the failed policy into law.
Members of the
committee voiced skepticism Tuesday over how the state
would enforce the ban and verify whether a prospective
parent was gay. They heard from teenagers who said
being raised by gays has not harmed them.
"I've lived in
both types of homes, one with a mother and a father
and one with my nana, and in my experience the best one was
the one with my nana," the AP quoted Devon Bearden,
15, as saying. "I think the home a child goes into
should be based on who can best take care of the
child."
The Arkansas
Child Welfare Board instituted the ban in March 1999,
claiming children should be in traditional two-parent homes
because they are more likely to thrive there. Four
people sued, and the board dropped the policy after
losing a court fight in 2004. (The Advocate)
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