Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Bar Republicans from Adopting!

State Sen. Robert Hagan sent out e-mails to fellow lawmakers late Wednesday night, stating that he intends to "introduce legislation in the near future that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents." The e-mail ended with a request for co-sponsorship...

Hagan said his "tongue was planted firmly in cheek" when he drafted the proposed legislation. However, Hagan said that the point he is trying to make is nonetheless very serious.

Hagan said his legislation was written in response to a bill introduced in the Ohio House this month by state Rep. Ron Hood, R-Ashville, that is aimed at prohibiting gay adoption...

Hood's bill, which does not have support of House leadership, seeks to ban children from being placed for adoption or foster care in homes where the prospective parent or a roommate is homosexual, bisexual or transgender.

To further lampoon Hood's bill, Hagan wrote in his mock proposal that "credible research" shows that adopted children raised in Republican households are more at risk for developing "emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities."

However, Hagan admitted that he has no scientific evidence to support the above claims.

Just as "Hood had no scientific evidence" to back his assertion that having gay parents was detrimental to children, Hagan said. (Emphasis added.)


Sometimes parody is the best argument. And the bolded paragraph strikes me as more likely than the worries about gay parents.

(Link: Lawmaker's proposal: Bar Republicans from adopting)

10 comments:

Shlomo Leib Aronovitz said...

I'm all for it.

Laura said...

A politician with a sense of humor? what is our world coming to?

Robbie said...

If only wishing made it so...

The Atheologist said...

Why stop at adopting? I would like to see a ban on allowing them to procreate too.

Nails said...

Kind of makes me wish I lived in Ohio.

Foilwoman said...

I didn't know politicians were allowed to have senses of humor, but now that it's clear that it's not forbidden, why have we been putting up with Cheney, he of the grim face and shooting his friends?

Oh, I bet a scientific study would show that children adopted into NRA-supporting (and presumably Republican) homes have a much higher rate of getting shot than children adopted into sissified gay and transgender homes, where they are more likely to be traumatized by fashion and makeup excesses.

asher said...

With the thousands and thousands of childless heterosexual couples waiting to adopt, and going so far as China and Hungary to find a child, this talk of gay couples adopting children is really innane. Although I've heard of many couples going through hoops to adopt an infant, you've never heard of a gay couple having this same problem. For that matter, you've never heard of a single Hollywood actress having much problems with the process. Anyone who would allow Angelina Jolie to adopt anyone or thing should really be given a santity test.

I suppose an interesting stat would be be to find out how many gay couples have actually adopted a child.

Anonymous said...

Asher - In the adoption world there's a major supply and demand imbalance. While brown babies languish in institutions, white couples fly to all corners of the world to adopt white or asian babies.

Based on personal anecdotal experience, it's my impression that gay couples are more likely than straight couples to adopt children that are hard to place such as older children, babies born to drug addicted mothers and babies exposed to HIV. Do you think it's better to leave these in institutions than to give them an opportunity to live in a loving home?

asher said...

esther,

Your comment points out two very interesting things:

Blacks have more children available for adoption but prefer not to have whites adopt them and,

blacks don't want to adopt other people's black children.

Anecdotally, have you ever heard of a gay couple going to extremes in order to adopt a child...? Why do lesbian couples prefer to have one of them inseminated rather than adopt a stranger's child? I'm sure Ellen Degeneris and her partner would have no problem finding a suitable child in China or Hungary.

As an answer, I would prefer to see black couples adopt children in the same proportion as white couples.

Foilwoman said...

Asher: Actually, blacks have a higher adoption rate than whites. There used to be a bar in some states against mixed race adoptions, but that has been (in some cases is still being) lifted. There are many children of non-European & non-Asian background who are available for adoption while people fly to Eastern Europe and Asia to adopt "preferred" babies. Babies also get sent back when not as advertised. One of my gay colleagues adopted a little boy from Russia (6 years old) who had been adopted by a lovely (sarcasm) married couple who rejected him after bringing him to the U.S. He knew. He's a great kid. Another gay friend of mine adopted a three year old black child while a number of married couples we knew were flying all over the earth to select the perfect child who would make their perfect family more perfect. Sarcasm again, but hey. And the rejecting families and perfection seeking families? All actively religious (some Jewish, some Christian). None black. None gay. Go figure.