Video Takes Aim
at Arkansas's Divisive Act 1

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)