I have to wonder if people are for real with they say shit like this. I thought the point was to have a home with happy well taken care of children. Why does it matter who is doing the rearing?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26393962/

Wow. If this happens (and forgive me for stereotyping) Arkansas is going to lose a lot of highly educated, skilled white collar workers in stable relationships. Could you see a gay couple deciding to stick around if this right to adopt is stripped from them?

In my hometown a lot of the people who do foster are single, older women. Often they have had a husband and children and later in life find themselves alone so they foster.

That is ridiculous. The "gold standard" is a married mom and dad? Really? I thought the "gold standard" was a parent who has sufficient love, patience, and income to provide for their child's needs. All it does is leave children in the foster care system to rot, but since those children are often disabled or not pretty white male babies the assholes pushing this kind of legislation don't care.

That's crazy and criminally negectful of the ones who matter most in all this--the kids. I figured for most of my life that I'd never get married, but I hoped to adopt when I "grew up" and had a stable life to offer a kid. Sure, maybe it would be preferable to have a male role model to whom I was married living in the house, but surely my single self and all the love and care I could offer was better than being passed around the foster care system.

Guess not, according to Arkansas.

Yes, historically married men and women have provided the most stable households. Things have changed a lot in the last fifty years, though. Someday even places like Arkansas are going to have to face that and stop punishing innocent kids because they're still wishing for the old days.

In order to "protect" kids from being adopted by gay individuals and couples, the state is willing to deny kids safe and loving homes.

Nice.

If the state really wanted secure families, they would make that "gold standard" available to more people by expanding the benefits and protections of legal marriage available to other groups, including gay couples and people in committed relationships who choose to not be married.

I don't even want to begin talking about the message this sends to single parents.

mamawho, if they opened up that 'gold standard' to everyone, then it wouldn't be exclusive enough and would stop being the 'gold standard'. Because they specifically say married mom and dad homes, not married dad and dad or mom and mom.

Which is stupid, but I long ago gave up on the vast majority of people being even remotely sensible, sane, or not bigots.