Vote NO on SB 959

What the bill does:  SB 959 would categorically ban lesbian and gay Arkansans from adopting or serving as foster parents, even if they’re relatives of the child in question.  It would also ban unmarried heterosexual couples who live together, unless they’re related to the child, which could prevent godparents or family friends from caring for a child if the parents die or can't keep the child.

Arkansas’s foster care system:  The state of Arkansas already has a shortage of good adoptive and foster homes for the children in the child welfare system.  This bill goes against standard social welfare practice and would only make the pool of potential good homes for these children in need even smaller.  Please vote NO on SB 959!

• Child welfare experts oppose categorical bans and agree that all potential adoptive and foster parents should instead be subjected to a stringent individual screening process.  Arkansas already puts every prospective parent through a criminal records check, health screening, and a home study.  Anyone, gay or straight, that the state finds unfit to parent is already excluded.

• SB 959 would hurt the many children in need of homes in Arkansas.  It would tie the hands of caseworkers and prevent them from making the placements they deem best for some children.

• SB 959 wouldn’t withstand a constitutional challenge in court.  The Arkansas Supreme Court already unanimously held that there is no rational connection between excluding gay people from parenting and the health, safety or welfare of children, which means that such an exclusion can’t withstand a constitutional challenge.  Why waste taxpayer money on another lawsuit that the state will undoubtedly lose because the relevant issues have already been decided by the Arkansas Supreme Court?

• What do Arkansans think?  Arkansans agree that individual screening of all applicants, rather than blanket exclusions, is appropriate child welfare policy.  According to a 2005 poll of 800 people conducted by the University of Arkansas, 65% said they approved of allowing a lesbian or gay man to adopt a child if the court found that person fit in all other ways to become an adoptive parent.

• Gay parents and heterosexual parents—the evidence: 25 years of research on lesbian and gay parents and their children shows that gay people are just as capable of being good parents as heterosexuals and the children raised by gay parents are just as well-adjusted.  Not a single study has found any harm to children from being raised by gay parents.

• What do Arkansas children’s advocates think? All of the major Arkansas groups dedicated to children's health and welfare -- Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Arkansas Psychological Association, and the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers -- recognize that gay people can be equally good parents and, thus, oppose restrictions on parenting by lesbians and gay men.   All of the national children's health and welfare groups agree too, including the American Academy of Pediatricians, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and the Child Welfare League of America.

ACLU of Arkansas - March, 2007