Arkansas: Fear the Gay

Radley Balko | November 5, 2008

Yesterday, 57 percent of Arkansas voters decided that the state's 9,000 children in foster care are better off there than adopted by a gay couple.

Comments

Elemenope|11.5.08 @ 9:12AM|#

Because the absolute first priority of anti-abortion activists must be to make adoption harder!

That way the harlot mother suffers from her sin.

|11.5.08 @ 9:14AM|#

Well, we need to contain the gay before it mutates and becomes airborn.

Kaiser|11.5.08 @ 9:17AM|#

...but...but...life would be so hard for those young kids to explain that they have two mommies or two daddies.

Abdul|11.5.08 @ 9:17AM|#

Oh, C'mon! Like a gay couple was really going to adopt 9,000 kids.

|11.5.08 @ 9:18AM|#

Because the absolute first priority of anti-abortion activists must be to make adoption harder!

That way the harlot mother suffers from her sin.

You just don't understand what it means to do the right thing, as He would want us to do, Elemenope. I will pray for you.

|11.5.08 @ 9:19AM|#

It's for the children

|11.5.08 @ 9:20AM|#

Can unmarried heterosexual couples adopt in Arkansas?

Elemenope|11.5.08 @ 9:51AM|#

Can unmarried heterosexual couples adopt in Arkansas?

Apparently not. Very crafty. It avoids many equal protection pratfalls.

I suppose to an Arkansas Jesus-fluffer, a child living in Hell is infinitely preferable to a child living in the presence of sin.

|11.5.08 @ 10:15AM|#

You have to have some pretty mind-boggling hatred to prefer that children stay in the horrific limbo of foster care rather than be adopted.

anarch|11.5.08 @ 10:19AM|#

Solution: Improve foster care so that it becomes superior to adoptive homes, then superior to all homes, then mandatory for all children, then mandatory for everyone.

Elemenope|11.5.08 @ 10:23AM|#

You have to have some pretty mind-boggling hatred to prefer that children stay in the horrific limbo of foster care rather than be adopted.

I imagine it helps them to not think very hard about that part.

Actually, you'd be surprised how many people don't know what a hell-hole foster care is.

|11.5.08 @ 10:32AM|#

Sometimes, I feel like losing all hope.

|11.5.08 @ 10:34AM|#

I imagine it helps them to not think very hard about that part.

Think? I don't think the "god-fearing", "caring" folks think about it at all. They're too busy thinking about how to deny homos any semblance of equality.

|11.5.08 @ 10:38AM|#

Think? I don't think the "god-fearing", "caring" folks think about it at all. They're too busy thinking about how to deny homos any semblance of equality.

That's not it at all! You can't judge me based on my values and religion, or are you forgetting your libertarian principles. You're trying to force us to accept the gay lifestyle and surrender our children to those that actively work against His will.

|11.5.08 @ 11:37AM|#

I suppose to an Arkansas Jesus-fluffer, a child living in Hell in this life is infinitely preferable to a child living in hell for infinity.

Fixed!

(I got 318 (5%) votes in my house run! I didn't even campaign.)

Elemenope|11.5.08 @ 11:55AM|#

I suppose to an Arkansas Jesus-fluffer, a child living in Hell in this life is infinitely preferable to a child living in hell for infinity.

Fixed!

But, but, but...that doesn't even make sense!

rhywun|11.5.08 @ 12:02PM|#

Well, at least there's no need to waste time on a gay marriage ban in Arkansas (assuming they don't already have one). I think we all know how that would turn out.

|11.5.08 @ 12:33PM|#

What? A Reason blog comment thread without a sprinkling of he-man, macho, tiny-penis gay bashing? An unalloyed recognition of the retrograde and troglodyte nature of Christian true believers? Gosh, the election must be over.

Levi|11.5.08 @ 12:38PM|#

rhywun: It seems they already have banned gay marriage (source).

Agape|11.5.08 @ 1:17PM|#

It was fundamentalist Christians who interpreted the Bible to keep slaves...
(yet the slaves were freed)

It was these same bigoted haters who interpreted the Bible to keep women from voting.
(yet women now have the vote)

As a "beleiver", I am witnessing "hate" based upon "hate" and not the will of God.

This new group of haters will need a name...

I suggest, "Christians against Christ".

Elemenope|11.5.08 @ 1:38PM|#

I suggest, "Christians against Christ".

'Christianist' is punchier.

rhywun|11.5.08 @ 1:39PM|#

It seems they already have banned gay marriage

I am shocked!

|11.5.08 @ 1:46PM|#

Ah yes. Clinton Country.

Salvius|11.5.08 @ 2:02PM|#

Fuck Arkansas. Fuck them sideways.

Damien, Jason, Jesse: When you guys get out, get in a car, head North, and don't stop until you've crossed at least two state lines.

At that point, perhaps we could just build a wall around the whole state and throw criminals into it.

Agape|11.5.08 @ 2:34PM|#

To:
"The forgotten children" - Foster or otherwise - spawned by hetrosexual lust...then abandoned, with no identity to comment upon beyond;

"I was the product of cheap sex, during a cheap night, at a cheap motel"

Darling children, it appears to me that someone HAS wanted you!

It appears to me that you have been denied a stable home full of love and attention not even the Christian community full of all its prayer and righteousness can provide you.

My children, Gay couples did not create you, yet they want you...

It appears to me Gay adoption was most likely the best chance of hope you beg God each night to provide your young lives before falling asleep in uncertain surroundings.

It appears to me your have been denied that special individual love we ALL crave from an adoring parent(s). This I know you crave the most!

As hard as the defeat may seem to you now...there is a way to rise above it.

These Foster Children NOW will need that special sense of HOME in the future.

If you you love them NOW, then love them in the FUTURE just just as strongly and offer them a home for when they become of age.

I find it interesting how Gay Marriage had nothing to do with these poor kids predicament in life, yet their are those who will deny them the "Blessing" of being LOVED by a caring family.

"Fear and hate have always been the defining quality of ignorance."

|11.5.08 @ 3:40PM|#

What do you expect? Gay bashing is the state sport.

Agape|11.5.08 @ 3:52PM|#

No Sir... Not the State! But definately a favorite of funamentalist Christians.

|11.5.08 @ 4:53PM|#

I asked a question earlier that a few people addressed, but I guess it's easier to go to the "Arkansas is a backwater fundie Christian bunch of gay-haters" (which of course it is), then think that just maybe some people thought that allowing children to be adopted into unstable relationships (assuming, of course, that any relationship outside of marriage is inherently unstable, which is another argument) might not be the best long-term solution. I'm not going to even try to refute any of the Arkansas bashing, because it is all deserved, but when placing children into permanent homes the stability of the relationship of the parents has to be paramount, and unfortunately marriage is the best proxy we have to determine that.

Salvius|11.5.08 @ 5:06PM|#

"might not be the best long-term solution"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for any individual child, the alternative to adoption is foster care. I'd love to hear an argument that the stability of foster care is preferable to the shifting sands of a committed-but-unmarried relationship.

The tricky part there is that "when placing children into permanent homes" bit. If there are currently 9,000 children in foster care, that would imply that there are fewer permanent homes than there are children. So the choice is not between "married straight couple" and "unmarried (straight or gay) couple". The choice, for at least some of those kids, is between "unmarried (straight or gay) couple" and "no permanent home AT ALL".

Telling unmarried couples they can't adopt will not magically create thousands of new, married, adoption-seeking parents.

|11.5.08 @ 5:44PM|#

Salvius,

I never pretended that there is an easy solution. Plus, as an adoptee this issue means a lot to me. I haven't looked into the situation in Arkansas, but I do wonder why there isn't a clear path available from foster care to adoption. Unless there is, but foster parents prefer the monthly stipends to actually taking full responsibility for the children they take in.

I've tried over and over just while writing this post to come up with a concluding thought, but I can't. I wish no child had to go through even a minute of foster care, but it happens. Hell, even in Massachusetts, where gay marriage is allowed, there are many more children waiting for permanent homes.

Source: http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dss/fy08_quarter3.pdf

|11.6.08 @ 7:00AM|#

Just to add I'm living proof that married evangelical parents are not the divine solution presented by many. - mine are god awful.

I'm not going into it here but families should be about unquestioning and unconditional love and support, if there is someone out there willing to give this safe haven to a child, whoever they may be, why are they not better than fostering? Kudos to all foster parents out there who give their all I know many live changed for the better by them but a life with a home, that's priceless and one I have personally lost to religion.

(from the UK)