AR Supreme Court Agrees: Gay & Lesbian Adoption/Foster Care Ban Unconstitutional

Here is some good news coming our of Arkansas. The state cannot universally ban gay couples and other unmarried couples from foster parenting or adopting:

The state's high court wrote in an opinion Thursday that the law burdens the privacy of unmarried couples who live together. A state judge struck down the law last April because he said it forced unmarried couples to choose between their relationships and becoming adoptive parents. The attorney general later asked the Supreme Court to reverse that decision, arguing that fostering or adopting a child is not a constitutionally protected right.

The state has tried several times to ban gay people from adopting and foster parenting.  Each time, it's found to be unconstitutional.  This latest attempt was a 2008 voter-approved initiative banning unmarried cohabitating couples from adopting or foster parenting.  It didn't ban single individuals from adopting or foster parenting.

Husband Mark's immediate response to this decision was "Good.  It will give conservative groups more issues to devote their time and money against."  He then noted that it signaled that courts still aren't significantly cowed by Iowa's 2010 anti-retention campaign that knocked out three of the Supreme Court justices who upheld the Varnum v. Brien case and signaled the end of Iowa's DOMA law.

It wouldn't surprise me if Arkansas' social conservatives tried once again to creatively ban gay couples from foster parenting and adopting.  Frankly, I don't understand why they keep it up.  How many times can you keep getting knocked down before you move on?  Also, there are thousands of kids nationwide needing foster and pre-adoptive home.  Are there that many foster and pre-adoptive parents in Arkansas that they can eagerly shut the door on a whole class of potential applicants?  If a particular couple isn't safe, they either won't pass their initial home study or they'll likely get washed out during their first couple years -- assuming the state adequately supports the social workers who oversee those families.

Nearly a decade ago, Iowa tried to universally ban gay people from foster parenting and adopting.  We had recently taken in Leslie and were seriously concerned for his welfare should we involuntarily lose our license.  Heck, his birth grandparents and great-grandmother were also upset by this effort as they were very pleased with his development since moving in with us.  In a way, it makes sense to limit foster families to married couples.  But foster care is full of grays.  The "ideal" families that social conservatives want to foster and adopt kids usually don't want to foster or adopt children.  And many of the "non-ideal" individuals and families that social conservatives want to protect kids from actually do quite well when they become foster and adoptive parents.

Anyway, I passed on the following message to every legislator that session: Iowa is already short on foster families.  Instead of getting rid of effective foster parents who are currently stepping up to the plate, put your time and energy into recruiting new foster parents who ascribe to your values so that placement workers have more homes to choose from instead of less.

This country needs more foster families, not fewer foster families.  If the citizens of Arkansas are upset with this Supreme Court decision, I hope that they spend less time attacking gays and lesbians and more time signing up to become foster parents for the needy children of their state.