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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2002)
September 6. 2002 news ■ P a s to r K athy T a ck ett T h e C ity C h u r c h , P o r tl a n d V IR G IN IA lesbian Episcopal priest in north ern Virginia will be able to adopt another foster child from the District of Colum bia— and Virginia child placement officials no longer will bar such adoptions based on the parents’ sexual orientation— under a lawsuit settlement made public Aug. 14. Linda Kaufman adopted a 5-year- old D.C. foster child in 1992, and she has been trying to adopt a sibling for him since 1999. A Virginia adoption agency and D.C. officials determined that she is well qualified to provide a home for a second child— but state officials refused to approve the place ment because she is a lesbian. “This is a common-sense settle m ent th at puts the. focus of adop tion back where it belongs— on the kids,” attorney G reg N evins said. "Today’s settlem ent isn’t only a vic California Assemblyman D ennis M ountjoy (left, with tory for Linda’s family— it’s a bea Arnold Schwarzenegger) opposes landmark legislation con of hope for some of the 1,016 protecting queer youth in foster care children in foster care in D.C. who are waiting to be adopted.” Continued from Page 19 Kaufman works in Washington, D.C., but A report published last year by Lambda Legal lives in Arlington with her partner, Liane Defense and Education Fund detailed the vast Rozzell. She said she immediately will begin the unmet needs of queer youth in California’s fos process of adopting another child. ter care system. A n estimated 20 percent to 40 “These kids need a loving, stable, permanent percent of homeless youth arc gay, lesbian or hi, home, which is what my family provides,” Kauf- and queer kids account for about 30 percent of man said. “This settlement is what I’ve wanted adolescent suicides. all along— for my application to be processed Amid vicious rhetoric from several con and assessed like all the others and for kids who servative Republicans on the Assembly floor— badly need homes to have that chance.” Dennis Mountjoy of Monrovia declared angrily, “This bill says it’s OK to be gay; it’s not OK to ARKANSAS be gay”— numerous Democrats stood up to Q aying a state ban on gay and lesbian foster voice their strong support for the bill. C o O parenting does nothing to help children in author Dion A roner of Berkeley remarked need and is based only on bias and stereotypes, afterward, “Mr. M ountjoy’s comments provided the American Q v il Liberties U nion filed papers a perfect example of the kind of intolerant Aug. 20 asking a judge to strike down the policy behavior that this bill will protect vulnerable once and for all. foster youth against.” In the lawsuit," originally filed in 1999, four prospective foster parents— including a gay cou P E N N S Y L V A N IA ple who have been in a committed relationship he Pennsylvania Supreme C ourt ruled for 17 years and a heterosexual married man who is barred from foster parenting because his gay son unanimously Aug. 20 that the Pennsylva lives at home— said the ban violates their right to nia Adoption Act unequivocally allows a gay or lesbian partner to adopt the other partner’s chil equal treatment under the federal and state con dren. The decision follows four years of litiga stitutions. The policy was adopted by the states Child Welfare Agency Review Board in 1999. tion for two families, a gay couple in Erie with two children and a lesbian couple from Lancast “The child welfare board’s own attorneys er with twin boys. advised them against enacting this ban, and The Superior Q uirt had held that they went right ahead and did it any the act first would require a legal parent way,” said Rita Sklar, A CLU of to relinquish his or her parental rights Arkansas executive director. “They before allowing a same-sex partner to allowed their bias against gay people adopt the children being raised by both to guide their actions in the face of of them. The Supreme Q u irt reversed overwhelming social science evidence that decision, calling the interpretation that lesbians and gay men make per “absurd," and remanded the cases for fectly good foster parents.” full evidentiary hearings. In passing the policy, the board “There is no language in the adop relied on th e widely discredited tion act precluding two unmarried Paul Cam eron "junk science” of Paul Cameron,, a same-sex partners...from adopting a psychologist whose efforts to paint child who had no legal parents. It is therefore gay men and lesbians as child abusers and absurd to prohibit their adoption merely because prone to violence and disease have been their children were the biological or adopted rejected in federal court and caused him to be children of one of the partners prior to the filing booted out of the American Psychological of the adoption petition," states the unanimous A ssociation for unscientific and unethical court decision authored by C h ief Justice practices in his work. Stephen A. Zappala. “T he board based this ban on a handful of ugly and outdated stereotypes and then went out This ruling is critical to providing kids with the rights associated with a legal parent-child : looking for any evidence to back up what it had relationship including inheritance rights, Social done,” attorney Leslie Q xiper said. “The board Security survivor benefits, eligibility for health | has yet to come up with any evidence that gay insurance benefits, medical decision-making people are bad parents from a legitimate scien- authority, child support payments and custody, tific source— th at’s because there isn’t any." J H Same-sex couples throughout Pennsylvania now will have the opportunity to adopt their Compiled by News Editor J im R a d o s t a , who can partners’ children. be reached at jim@justnut.com. 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