News
2006-06-30
Ban on gay foster
parents dies in Arkansas
Arkansas supreme
court: Gays can be foster parents
The Arkansas
supreme court on Thursday upheld a lower
The Arkansas
supreme court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that
said gays and lesbians cannot be barred from the state's
foster care system. The unanimous decision ended a
seven-year legal battle by the American Civil
Liberties Union against an antigay policy established in
1999 by Arkansas's Child Welfare Agency Review Board.
Pointing to the
findings of a lower court that overturned the ban, the
court criticized the Child Welfare Agency Review Board's
reasons for enacting the regulation, writing, "These
facts demonstrate that there is no correlation between
the health, welfare, and safety of foster children and
the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual
or who resides in a household with a homosexual."
The court went on
to say that the state's argument to the contrary
"flies in the face" of the scientific evidence about the
suitability of lesbian and gay people as foster parents. The
court added that "the driving force behind adoption of
the regulation was not to promote the health, safety,
and welfare of foster children but rather based upon
the board's view of morality and its bias against
homosexuals."
"The Arkansas
supreme court clearly understood what social scientists
and every respected child welfare organization have been
saying for years: There is no reason to deprive
children of good homes by excluding lesbian and gay
people from serving as foster parents," said Rita
Sklar, executive director for the ACLU of Arkansas. "We have
a shortage of foster homes in Arkansas, especially for
teenagers and sibling groups. Thanks to today's
ruling, Arkansas's foster children have a better
chance of finding loving homes."
The Child Welfare
Agency's policy stated that "no person may serve as a
foster parent if any adult member of that person's household
is a homosexual." That same year, the ACLU filed a
lawsuit challenging the policy on behalf of a lesbian
from Fayetteville, a gay couple from Little Rock, and
a heterosexual man from Waldron whose gay son sometimes
lives at home. All of them want to serve as foster
parents but are automatically disqualified from doing
so by the ban.
"The Arkansas
supreme court has ruled that all children in foster
care deserve to be placed in good homes without
discriminatory politics standing in the way," said Joe
Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human
Rights Campaign. "Every child welfare organization has
said for years that sexual orientation has no impact on a
person's ability to be a good parent. We give enormous
thanks to the plaintiffs in this case and the American
Civil Liberties Union, which represented these
families. Their stories and seven-year fight for fairness
have likely resulted in hundreds of potential homes
opening up for children in need."
Solmonese
continued, "The tide is turning toward fairness for all
families. This year, the two states to ban foster parenting
for gay parents have had to face sound science and
reverse their politically charged and discriminatory
policies. With Missouri and now Arkansas moving toward
fairness for foster children, there are no explicit
restrictions on foster parenting by gay parents." (The
Advocate)
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