Monday, October 19, 2009

Federal Bill Would Deny Funding to States Banning Gay Adoption

Posted by Bianca Phillips on Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 2:35 PM

Congressman Pete Stark of California has proposed a federal bill — the Every Child Deserves a Family Act — that would deny funding to states that pass bills banning adoption by gay, transgender, or unmarried heterosexual parents.

Pete Stark
  • Pete Stark

According to Stark: "This legislation would simply prohibit any entity that receives federal child welfare funds from denying or delaying adoption or foster care placements based solely on the prospective parent’s marital status or sexual orientation. States and child welfare agencies that fail to end discriminatory practices would face financial penalties. This is the same approach that put an end to race discrimination in adoption and foster care placements."

Former Tennessee state senator Paul Stanley and Representative John DeBerry (both from Shelby County) proposed state legislation earlier this year that would ban adoption by any couple co-habitating in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. There hasn't been much action on that bill since last February.

The Tennessee Equality Project is urging LGBT advocates to be ready to fight the state adoption bill again when the legislature re-convenes.

For more information, check out this post on Grand Divisions: News and Comment from TN Politics.

Comments (3) RSS

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Every compassionate person needs to help make this go through. It is time for close-minded and hateful people to leave their bigotry at the door, realize their opinions don't mean crap when you are dealing with the personal lives of others, and allow all children the opportunity to have a loving family and bright future. The only harm that comes from letting the GLBT community adopt is that the children might be ridiculed by peers - but hey, that wouldn't be a problem if parents would stop shoving hate in to the minds of their kids. Teach love, live love.

Posted by B-reazy on October 20, 2009 at 8:50 AM | Report this comment

I'm sure greedy NH will change their laws now to let gay's adopt. After all, our children are their money market.

Posted by unhappygrammy on October 20, 2009 at 4:45 PM | Report this comment
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I wonder what would happen if this much effort and money were put into supporting mothers so they wouldn't have to relinquish their children in the first place...

Posted by koreanadoptee on October 20, 2009 at 9:59 PM | Report this comment

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