Slog

Dan:

My partner and I adopted our newborn daughter on July 28, 2008, here in Chicago. We are grateful that the state courts in Chicago, IL have interpretted the state's law to allow gay adoption here. The children-hating, big-government-loving conservatives who oppose gay adoption need to re-examine their values. If being raised by the state is more beneficial for foster children, why not have the state raise EVERYONE's children? I'm sure we can count on Uncle Sam to foot the bill. But if all children are being raised by the state, there could be no home schooling by those same conservative fucktards. A whole new generation of fucktards could disappear altogether. I have to stop writing now. I'm starting to like this idea...

DBL

I saw a piece on those guys in Florida on one of those Dateline or 20/20 shows a couple years ago. Totally heartbreaking at the time, but it's great to see that they were able to officially adopt their son.

From that Nevada article about the eleven older kids being abandoned: "Nine of the children came from one family. The five boys and four girls were left by their father, who was not identified." The hell?

The welfare of the children is of no concern to conservatives. They only care about their gay hating agenda. Fools, Morons and brainwashed Jesus freaks don't care what caring professionals say about anything. They must be defeated this fall!

See, if Florida let those gays adopt, that would take away the specialness of straights adopting. A married straight couple would feel demoralized about being apart of a system that doesn't give them special rights, and they probably wouldn't try to adopt any more kids. Cause straight couples only adopt knowing they're a part of a protected class, and that gays are just placeholders for these children until a real couple can come along and rescue the poor babes.

Heartbreaking that such a struggle was involved.

But awesome that the dads were willing (and financially able) to fight the good fight to a sucessful conclusion.

I keep telling myself that life is just one day at a time, and that things DO change - but the wait is damn frustrating!

Leaving Florida for Chicago = Best Decision Ever.

I am both a Christian and an adoptive parent; my husband and I foster-adopted a sibling group and are actively involved in encouraging couples to consider foster parenting and foster-adoption for the same reasons you mention: So many children are in need of a permanent, loving home.

"Conservatives," as you call them, do not oppose gay/lesbian adoption because we hate children, but because we recognize that ALL children need both a mother and a father. Natural law supports this even if you don't adhere to traditional Judeo-Christian values.

For a long time, it was considered wrong to place African-American children with white couples because they would be unable to teach the child about their cultural and social roots. But because of the large numbers of AA children and the shortfall of suitable homes, gradually this has changed.

Anyone who actively works against gay and lesbian adoption needs to be willing to work even harder to find a suitable alternative -- loving families headed by married couples who can model for them the social and relational skills they will need later in life. Unless we are willing to take care of these children ourselves, all the good intentions in the world only comes across as so much prejudice.

God bless you!

WTF is with that teacher saying "I looked for thing... knowing he was of gay parents"?? If she's gonna "look for things," she'd be a lot more likely to find "them" among female children of straight parents, both in terms of incidence (cases per thousand) and total numbers.

"All children need a mother and father" is not proven by any law, natural or otherwise. Children need caring, involved parents. What you're saying in your post essentially disenfranchises not only same-sex parents, but divorced and widowed parents, single parents, grandparents of children whose parents have died, etc. And it's just plain WRONG. No child is automatically better off with differing-gender parents simply because they're of different sexes; a child is better off for having adults who care for, and about them, involved in their day-to-day care. The genders are completely irrelevant.

Interesting comment, Heidi. Remember, as Voltaire said, that the perfect is the enemy of the good. And no one is perfect, not even (gasp!) a married opposite-sex couple. As you indicate, people who work against gay/lesbian adoption (do they work against single-parent adoption as well? equally bad for the children, according to you) without doing something about it should read Luke 16:19-31. Those folks are going to be mighty surprised when they wind up in the fiery depths of hell, looking up across a vast chasm at the adoptive parents sitting with Abraham.

@8: "Natural" law does not support this, and I do not adhere to traditional Judeo-Christian values. I firmly disagree with your groundless assertion.

To continue in this debate and not be laughed at, please provide a single study which unequivocally concludes that two caregivers of the same gender are less fit than two caregivers of opposite gender. Lest you be tempted to not give this diligent effort, you must make sure the study is accepted by any one of the major worldwide psychological, medical, or pediatric professional societies AND printed in a publication considered authoritative for one of those fields.

After you've done your homework, you're welcome to come back and apologize for your thoughtless (and really, mean-spirited) post here. In the event that you do find such a study, however, please let the world know; we breathlessly await any legitimate scientific knowledge that would contradict the enormous, varied, and thoroughly peer-reviewed body of work that supports us.

Heidi Saxton:

My partner and I are raising his developmentally disabled brother, who was abandoned by their father for being -- and I quote -- "retarded" and physically beaten and psychologically abused by his mother for more than 10 years before we were able to rescue him. Since he's moved in with us, he's learned to smile and talk to strangers and make jokes and hold a part-time job and feel safe functioning in a world where he knows his own parents won't repeatedly, relentlessly abuse him. In short, we've given him the essential "social and relational skills [he] will need later in life" that you arrogantly, hatefully imply can come only from straight people.

Don't parrot that empty "all children need both a mother and a father" bullshit to ME, Heidi. It's just a lazy, artless code for "religious extremists hate gay people." And whether or not you choose to own up to it, you know in your cold, black heart that it's the truth.

And my warm, loving, gay heart aches for the kids you foster-adopted and are raising to believe the things you believe. Teaching kids that there's anything wrong with homosexuality is tantamount to child abuse. If any of your kids discovers he's gay and realizes he's not safe in your house because of it, he's just as abused as my brother-in-law. And you and your make-believe god will never feel an ounce of shame for what you did to him.

I feel that the framing of this argument is most important. Instead of being "pro-gay," let's make Heidi and her friends "anti-child." Anyone willing to put their own beliefs before statistics and children's safety is definitely anti-child in my book.

Hey, Heidi? You can eat the corn out of my shit, hatesack.

My kid was REJECTED by some stupid fucking straight couple because his mother had been drinking and using drugs before she realized she was pregnant. He's a wonderful kid, and we're proud to be his parents. And he was FAILED by a "mother and a father"—potential adoptive mother and father, not his biomom, who did the right thing—before we were given the honor of adopting him and being his dads.

Again: Eat. My. Shit.

Dan,
it really is hard to follow 'eat the corn out of my shit,' but I will try.
Placing African American kids in "white" families was finally considered wrong, b/c it is WRONG.
Damn, once again, I encourage Heidi to follow a social worker around for one day. Just one. The loving dykes with mullets are super stars compared to the crack house mothers and fathers. And if the conservatives are sooo against abortion, why don't they take more children in? There are hundreds of thousands out there.
I love how the christian conservatives spew their hate and then end the crap with a nice "God Bless!!!"
I'm not going to say eat my shit, Heidi. I think a nice Fuck You will suffice.

Heidi excepted, you all make me smile and even more proud to be a gay dad. Wayne

Heidi - Imposing your religious views on children and gay citizens is wrong. You persecute gay and lesbians as being less able, less human to be parents. That directly harms children who need parents, gay and lesbian folks and society. It's ugly, it's ignorant and discriminatory.

Please see the link >

http://about-orphans.blogspot.com

"Placing African American kids in "white" families was finally considered wrong, b/c it is WRONG."

no, it is not. we (meaning my whitey mcwhiterson family) adopted my african-american sister in 1966. she turned out fine. and may i refer you to the book 'gay dads', wherein you see several white same-sex couples with adopted african-american children, all thriving and doing quite well.

the skin color is irrelevant. good loving parents are not.

Joy, I agree with you. How many of those conservatives actually adopt any unwanted children that are the result of unwanted pregnancies or abusive households? It's so easy to stand out in front of a clinic protesting abortions or signing a freakin' petition then go home at the end of the day without thinking of the true victims of their short sited bigotry; the children.

Oh, yeah; Heidi, how about some nuts with that corn?