Arkansas Ban on Same-Sex Parenting Moves Ahead

Somehow this news slipped by last week, but it’s a frightening step towards banning same-sex couples from adopting or fostering children in Arkansas:

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel approved a ballot initiative proposed by the conservative Family Council to ban unmarried couples from adopting or becoming foster parents in the state. This is the second version of the initiative, revised after the attorney general and Governor Mike Beebe said they would vote against the first one. The new version adds a clause tying the measure to “the best interest of children”: “The people of Arkansas find and declare that it is in the best interest of children in need of adoption or foster care to be reared in homes in which adoptive or foster parents are not co-habiting outside of marriage.”

Yup. The Arkansas two-step: ban us from marrying and then limit fostering and adoption to those who can marry.

To get the initiative on the November 2008 ballot, the Fort Smith Times Record reports, the Family Council must gather nearly 62,000 signatures of registered voters by July 7. Poll data collected a few weeks ago indicate a narrow margin for those supporting the initiative. LGBT activists in Arkansas think they can shift this. A similar measure met defeat in the legislature earlier this year.

3 thoughts on “Arkansas Ban on Same-Sex Parenting Moves Ahead”

  1. Pingback: crankreport.blog » Blog Archive » The world gets smaller.

  2. Let me guess how many of the “Family Council” members are foster/adoptive parents. I’d wager all the money I don’t have the number would be zero or pretty close to it. It disgusts me, too, that some will stop at nothing- are willing to hurt the most vulnerable of our children- for the sake of tearing down lgbt people. Come on, comeuppance!

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