Adoption ban has hateful undertones

With all the buzz surrounding California’s Proposition 8, it’s easy to forget the equally hate-filled legislation passed in Arkansas on Nov. 4 banning unmarried couples and homosexuals from adopting or fostering children.

The measure, passed on the same day as Barack Obama’s historic election, reminded the nation that all change is not yet welcome in this country.

As an Arkansan, I’m embarrassed and angry.

The initiative was heavily backed by evangelicals who, after seeing the Arkansas Supreme Court throw out a ban on fostering and adoption by gay couples in 2006, petitioned to put the measure on state ballots for a second time. 

Never mind the fact that in Arkansas there are three times as many children in need of a home than there are families to care for them. That’s not a good enough reason to allow those sinful homosexuals and immoral unmarried couples to take in a child.

After hearing that the ban passed, I couldn’t help but wonder how anyone could justify denying an innocent child a safe, loving home. 

Having lived in Arkansas my entire life, the only thing I could come up with is pure ignorance. I’ve personally heard grown adults say they don’t think it’s good for a homosexual to raise a child because “they may turn out gay.” That’s far worse than not having a family at all or growing up in an abusive household. 

This is not only a slap in the face to homosexuals, but to single parents across the nation who have done a phenomenal job raising kids on their own (in many cases, a better job than many married couples).

Regardless, there are religious groups that try to impose their beliefs on everyone around them. I don’t say that to be offensive; after all, I am a Christian. I say this because it’s the truth.

According to exit polls, the initiative passed largely from the support of evangelical or born-again Christians. Among these voters, only a third voted against the act.

Clearly, religion played a deciding role in the ban.

This closed-minded way of thinking goes against everything we as Christians should strive to be. We are called to love one another. The book of Romans says, “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” 

By supporting equal rights for gays and lesbians, it in no way means you must agree with homosexuality. It does, however, mean that you acknowledge both straight and homosexual people as being created by God — created equally. 

More importantly, it means that you can see past your differences in order to put the needs of others first [in this case, children].

Additionally, if we are to separate church and state, we can’t just pick and choose when we want to separate it. It’s natural for one’s vote to reflect their personal beliefs, but when it goes so far as to impose on someone else’s views, the line has been crossed. When you’ve got homosexuals being denied the right to marry and adopt children, almost solely based on religion something is not right. 

Arkansas and Utah (a state with a heavily conservative Mormon population) are the only two states banning unmarried straight or gay couples from fostering or adopting children.

The facts are being ignored because organizations like the Family Council Action Committee “believes in blunting a gay agenda.”

Despite hearing from the court that there’s no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and living with homosexual parents, the legislation still passed. 

Although Gov. Mike Beebe changed his position from supporting foster care restriction to rejecting the ban, citing a lack of foster homes, voters still couldn’t bring themselves to look past their own agendas and support children in need.

An important question remains after the passage of this act. What will happen to adopted and foster children already living with homosexual, unmarried or single parents? Will they be sent back to an orphanage or foster home? We simply don’t know, and Arkansans didn’t bother to ask. 

The use of the term “sexual partner outside of marriage” is yet another issue. If you thought the government was already overstepping its boundaries, just wait. To actually enforce this law is going to require some hardcore investigative of work on the part of social workers everywhere.

While Americans clearly overcame the racial injustices that have plagued our country for decades last week, another kind of oppression prevailed. Just as African Americans were silenced and denied their basic rights, so too are homosexuals today. 

Maybe I’m preaching to the choir (I mean, this is a fairly liberal college campus in the heart of Sin City), but coming from a place where I’m constantly reminded that hate can so easily take precedence over equality, I can’t help but encourage everyone to take this fight seriously.