Arkansas Court Backs
Gay Foster Parents
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, June 30, 2006
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. --
Arkansas cannot ban homosexuals from becoming foster parents because there is no
link between their sexual orientation and a child's well-being, the state's high
court ruled Thursday.
The court agreed with a lower court judge that the state's child welfare board
had improperly tried to regulate public morality. The ban also violated
the separation of powers doctrine, the justices said.
The board instituted the ban in 1999, saying children should be in traditional
two-parent homes because they would be more likely to thrive.
Four residents sued, claiming discrimination and privacy violations against
homosexuals who otherwise qualified as foster parents.
The justices agreed Thursday, saying the ban was ''an attempt to legislate for
the General Assembly with respect to public morality.''
''There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster
children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who
resides in a household with a homosexual,'' Associate Justice Donald Corbin
wrote in the opinion.
In addition, the court said, the testimony of a Child Welfare Agency Review
Board member demonstrated that ''the driving force between adoption of the
regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children
but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against
homosexuals.''
The court also said that being raised by homosexuals doesn't cause academic
problems or gender identity problems, as the state had argued.
The ban had not been used since the lower court ruling in 2004, state Health and
Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell said. She said the plaintiffs
have not sought foster-parent status since then.
The department didn't know whether any homosexuals have applied, she said.
The unanimous ruling left open the possibility for lawmakers to pursue a ban
through legislation or possibly give the board authority to do so.
Jerry Cox, director of the Arkansas Family Council, said his group would push
for legislation to reimpose the ban and would consider campaigning for a
constitutional amendment in 2008.
''What the court effectively said is the Legislature needs to deal with this,''
Cox said. ''That's where we plan to take this.''
The American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas would be prepared to fight any
legislative efforts to enact a ban, but the court's ruling would make it
difficult for lawmakers to justify such restrictions, said executive director
Rita Sklar. ACLU lawyers represented the plaintiffs.
A Florida ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians was upheld in a federal court
and the U.S. Supreme court rejected an appeal by the ACLU.
(Emphasis Added.)
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