Arkansas’ Voter-Approved Gay Adoption Ban Is Unconstitutional: State Supreme Court

In November 2008, Arkansas voters approved in a 57-43 percent vote to adopt the Arkansas’ Act 1 (or the “Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban”), which bars unwed partners from adopting. The law, by default, barred gays from adopting because they cannot marry in the state; it also kept cohabitating opposite-sex couples from adopting. Today, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the ban as unconstitutional in a lawsuit brought by 29 adult and child plaintiffs. “Act 1,” which was never enforced, “directly and substantially burdens the privacy rights of ‘opposite-sex and same-sex individuals’ who engage in private, consensual sexual conduct in the bedroom by foreclosing their eligibility to foster or adopt children,” wrote Associate Justice Robert L. Brown in the court’s opinion. So that’s a loss for Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas Family Council (pictured), who really is disgusted by the idea of homosexuals keeping kids in their homes.