A proposed bill to prevent gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens from adopting children - or serving as foster parents - has been introduced to the Ohio House of Representatives. Under the pretense of the bigoted stigma denouncing same-sex parenting as harmful based solely on sexual orientation, this bill is a grim reflection of unwarranted lawmaking at its pinnacle. With no real evidence supporting the reduction of homosexual and transgender individuals' civil rights, the bill seems to be an attempt to legislate right-wing religious beliefs rather than to consider the best interests of the thousands of Ohio children in state and county custody.
And thankfully there are Ohio legislators who feel the same way. Yesterday Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said he won't allow the bill to move forward. Citing his own experience as being an adopted child, he said: If we had a situation where there were no children waiting to be adopted some place
I guess the landscape for the debate might be different ... But we have a lot of children in need who need homes and until all of them are adopted I'm not going to restrict any loving family's opportunity to adopt and to care for those children.
A person would be hard pressed to find truer words, and Husted's comments cut straight to the heart of this issue. It is society's obligation to find homes for these children, and in doing so it is wrong to ban potentially loving, capable parents based on antiquated views and bigoted beliefs.
It is ridiculous that such an outdated, religiously-driven mindset that believes same-sex households are more detrimental to a child than heterosexual households is worth some of our representatives' time. But at least the public can rest assured that some of Ohio's representatives are more concerned with solving real problems - finding places for children to live - than advancing a religious agenda.
Because sexual orientation has no scientific standing on the ability of same-sex couples to provide a healthy household, adoption agencies should gauge all prospective parents on the same merits. Any policy restricting able, loving parents - and in this case a large amount of people because homosexual couples make up a decent percentage of potential adoption parents - to adopt one of the thousands of children in foster homes or orphanages should not pass, regardless of stigmas against these couples.
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Anti-gay adoption bill has no merit
