A new video
challenging the merits of Arkansas's Act 1 -- a ballot
measure that would bar unmarried couples, including gay
couples, from adopting children or being foster parents
-- has hit YouTube.
The nine-minute
video features testimonials from former foster children
who were reared by unmarried couples, plus experts in the
fields of child protection, psychology, psychiatry,
pediatrics, and clergy. All the participants expound
on the importance of not limiting the number of adults
willing to adopt children.
"There is no
scientific evidence to suggest that cohabitating,
unmarried adults are any less capable of providing a
nurturing loving home for foster children," physician
Sharp Malak says in the video.
Other
participants in the video point out that the act is
unconstitutional because it bars a whole group of people --
unmarried people -- from adopting children, with no
rational reason for doing so. State voters will
decided Act 1's fate November 4.
The video was
produced and distributed by Arkansas Families First, a
group working to defeat Act 1. (Neal Broverman, The
Advocate)