The monster under your bed

Nothing bothers me more than hate cloaked in compassionate concern, and nothing demonstrates this bastardization of compassion more than Arkansas's Initiative 1, which states that no individual cohabiting outside of a valid marriage can adopt or foster a child under 18. The passage of this proposition (57% to 43%)creates a state constitutional law that was intended to (and does)prohibit gays and lesbians and other unsavory couples from adopting or fostering children.

The logic, if it can be called such, is not new. The basic gist is that homosexual parents will raise homosexual children. And since being homosexual is inherently evil, well, then forcing otherwise good, heterosexual children to be gay is double-plus evil. The number of levels that this is wrong on makes arguing against it pointless. But for many of those who supported the bill, some form of this logic made sense to them. Save the children! Keep them safe from those dirty, nasty, corrupting gays! But it was not love for children that truly motivated them. Rather, it was hate for other adults.

And as always, when hate leads, children and families suffer.

Nationwide, there were over 490,000 children in foster care in 2007. 130,000 were waiting for adoption. 51,000 were actually adopted. In 2006 in Arkansas, there were around 3400 children in foster care, with about 28% of them waiting for adoption. The numbers may be even higher these days with nearly three times the number of children waiting to be adopted as the number of people willing to adopt them and at least 500 children waiting on any given day. Many of these children have been abused, neglected, and/or abandoned by their (probably) heterosexual parents, but still two straight abusive idiots who abandoned the child are better for a his or her wellbeing than two non-married or homosexual adults who wish to create a stable, loving home. If given the choice between a loving committed homosexual couple or the warmth of a state institution, I think most children would choose the homosexual household. Even monkeys know that a soft and comforting caretaker is worth clinging too, even if it can't provide a "normal" lifestyle.

Homophobia is not new. We've been burning homosexuals at the stake since at least the 4th century when it became a policy of the Christian state. And today we still wage war against the threat of some sort of gay insurgency. Proposition 8 reminds us that all institutions need to be protected from them. While I may not agree with the effects of Proposition 8, it somehow seems like a more fair injustice than Initiative 1. At least in California it was adults attacking adults about adult behavior rather than holding out the most vulnerable wards of the state as sacrificial lambs to punish non-heterosexuals.

But let's not lose site of the wording of this Initiative. It never explicitly says "No fags or dykes can adopt", though that may have been the translation some voters were working with. It prohibits individuals cohabiting outside of a valid marriage. This includes not just homosexuals but numerous heterosexual couples, as even the supporters admit. People wishing to adopt or foster are always subjected to interviews and training, but now having that wedding ring on your finger becomes crucial. People may choose not to marry, such as elderly couples who do not want to risk government benefits, but now they are denied the opportunity to adopt their grandchildren along side of homosexual relatives who may wish to adopt an orphaned niece or nephew. So much for honoring families or protecting children.

This Initiative (now an Act, I believe) and those like it are simply hate wrapped in the rhetoric of love - pure propaganda for a campaign of prejudice. The concern for the wellbeing of children may be real and probably honestly exists in the hearts of those who voted for this Initiative. But by tapping into this love in order to single out "deviant" adults and perpetuate fear and hate, it lost all hope of being anything but a knife at the throats of children.

We all agree, I believe, that children need love and that adults should provide this and protect them from adults who may harm them. But loving children is very easy and does not require constitutional amendments. Are they warm? Are they fed? Are they stimulated intellectually, artistically, and socially? Are they comforted and reassured? Then they are loved. Job done. And who has a right to love children? According to Arkansas law, anyone who's married and no one who isn't.