To Create The Keep Kids First Act; And To Provide For Protections From Discrimination For Adoption And Foster Care Providers Acting In Accordance With Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 5, 2007LITTLE ROCK, AR – The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas today firmly denounced a bill introduced to the Arkansas State Legislature that would ban gay people and most unmarried heterosexual couples who live together from adopting or serving as foster parents. The bill was introduced today, just months after the state supreme court unanimously struck down a ban on fostering by gay people.“This bill flies in the face of what all respected child welfare organizations, social scientists, and Arkansans themselves know about what’s best for the children in our foster care system,” said Jim Harper, L.C.S.W., L.M.F.T., a Little Rock social worker who works with abused children and their families. “Foster care and adoptive placements should be made after careful, individualized screening of each potential parent, regardless of who he or she is. A blanket exclusion of any group of people that might be able to provide loving, stable homes when we have so many children in need of homes in our state foster care system is unconscionable.”SB 959, introduced today by Shawn Womack (R-Mountain Home), would categorically ban lesbian and gay Arkansans from adopting or serving as foster parents, even if they’re relatives of the children 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. “SB 959 is a heavy-handed and ill-conceived attempt to do an end run around the Arkansas Supreme Court, which has already struck down a regulation that didn’t even go as far as this bill does,” said Rita Sklar, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arkansas.  “The proponents of this bill only care about singling out gay people and unmarried couples at the expense of children in need of good homes.  They don’t care if an applicant is the child’s aunt or uncle, if that applicant has already been caring for the child or has a strong bond with the child – that child will be denied the comfort of that home if the applicant is gay.”Arkansas’s Child Welfare Agency Review Board had established a policy in 1999 that banned gay people from serving as foster parents, and the Arkansas Supreme Court struck it down after a seven-year legal battle between the state and the ACLU. Several prominent child welfare groups took an interest in the case, with friend-of-the-court briefs being submitted by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Association of Social Workers and its Arkansas chapter, the American Psychological Association and its Arkansas chapter, and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. These groups urged the court to strike down the exclusion because it worked against the best interests of foster children.In overturning the earlier ban, the Arkansas Supreme Court wrote, “(T)he driving force behind adoption of the regulation was not to promote the health, safety, and welfare of foster children, but rather based upon the Board’s view of morality and its bias against homosexuals.” The individualized assessments of potential adoptive or foster parents favored by child welfare organizations and social scientists are supported by most Arkansans as well. According to a 2005 poll conducted by the University of Arkansas, nearly two thirds of the respondents favored allowing placements with gay people if they pass the screening requirements that apply to everyone else.More information on the ACLU case that overturned the earlier ban can be found online at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/12137res20050301.html.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 12, 2007LITTLE ROCK, AR – The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas condemns the decision of an Arkansas Senate committee this morning to send to the floor SB 959, a bill that would ban gay people and most unmarried heterosexual couples who live together from adopting or serving as foster parents.“This bill is bad for our state and our children for many reasons, not the least of which is that it will rob parents of the ability to decide who will care for their children if something happens to them,” said Rita Sklar, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas. “If you want your gay brother or your lesbian aunt to adopt and raise your children if you die, your wishes will be disregarded by the state if this bill passes.”SB 959, introduced just months after the state Supreme Court unanimously struck down a ban on fostering by gay people, was approved to go to the full Senate this morning by the Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee. If passed, SB 959 would categorically ban lesbian and gay Arkansans from adopting or serving as foster parents, even if they’re relatives of the children 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.The ACLU of Arkansas pointed out several other problems with SB 959: