A bill that would allow Michigan adoption agencies to discriminate against prospective parents on religious grounds has cleared committee and is heading to the statehouse.
On Tuesday, the Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors approved House Bills 5763 and 5764 in a 6-2 vote.
“By all accounts, our adoptive story is a perfect example of how children in need should find their way to loving families,” testified gay dad Kent Love-Ramirez before the vote. “Yet these bills threaten to allow bigotry and individual subjectivity to trump the state’s criteria for determining the eligibility of a family.”
Love-Ramirez and his partner, Diego, are raising 2-year-old Lucas, who was one of 14,000 children in the state’s foster care system.
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Though Rep. Ken Kurtz (R-Coldwater) sponsored both bills, he says the exemption would only affect a handful of faith-based organizations:
“I don’t think anybody is questioning the ability of anyone to abide by the laws of this state to adopt,” said Kurtz, who chairs the committee. “The very, very few faith-based organizations that adopt on a religious basis are so few. We will not stop adoption. The door is wide open with privilege, and anyone can adopt if they want to adopt.”
Other supporters of the bills, which could go to a vote by the end of the year, tried to downplay their significance: “The legislation does not change or restrict how any adoptions are administered today,” said a representative from the Michigan Catholic Conference. “The bills simply recognize religious liberty rights and protect those rights from coercive efforts.”
Is there a single word of that statement that makes any sense? These bills codify discrimination, pure and simple. It doesn’t matter if it affects one child or 1,000.
If you want to help fight these odious measures, visit the Equality Michigan website.
Photo: Kent Love-Ramirez
DCFarmboi
Let’s be clear. This is not about placing a child with a straight couple instead of a gay person. The number of foster children is greater than the number of placements. By By excluding gay applicants, it means leaving children homeless. These bigots are sick.
John Doe
Based on federal statistics, there were 408,425 children in foster care (across the USA) on September 30, 2010. For some perspective…. 408,425 children is more than the population of incorporated Miami, FL or incorporated New Orleans, LA.
Of that 408,425, about 25% of those children had a goal of adoption vs. being reunified with their parents, emancipated, etc. So, there were (on that day) over 102,000 kids in the foster care system in the USA awaiting adoption. That’s about the population of incorporated Burbank, CA.
Based on that alone, the LGBT community is in a perfect position to address this significant social and moral issue in the USA. For me, it makes the surrogacy vs. adoption question extremely easy. There are so many kids out there that already don’t have a permanent home…. and that just get bounced around from foster care home to foster care home. Many of these kids “age out” of foster care and never have their own permanent family. (AND – As many of us know, almost all of these kids come from heterosexual households that have failed in one form or another).
If your state is considering laws that would limit adoption… definitely write to your representative about it. This type of discrimination only hurts these children further. Instead of making adoption easier….. these discriminatory laws only further promote keeping these kids in the foster care system.
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
doug105
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/how-to-determine-if-your-religious-liberty-is-being-threatened-in-just-10-quick-questions/politics/2012/09/06/48429
ait10101
“faith based organization” = institutionalized bigotry organization. I know plenty of people of faith who have no problem with gay people, gay marriage, or gay adoption.
Cam
I’m sick of the B.S. excuse that right wingers try to make that just because something is a “Religious Opinion” it is somehow exempt from rational thought.
Hey guess what, if you hate blacks, women, gays, Whites, Men, etc… You’re a bigot. I don’t care if your religion tells you to….it is irrelevent where the thought comes from. If your daddy told you to hate them because he was a Klansman or your Mormon Bishop told you to there is no difference. You’re a bigot, end of story.
Dionte
It’s time for me to leave Mi., I hate this place.