Texas bans gay parents

[seabeyond]

Texas bans gay parents .....passed in house, not senate yet

Austin April 20, 2005 - The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill banning homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals from being foster parents.

Under the bill, the state will be allowed to investigate the backgrounds of current foster parents and remove children living in non-heterosexual households. All future foster parents will be required to disclose their sexual preference on an application form, a legislative aide said.

"More than 43,000 gay and lesbian couples in Texas are forming families and raising children, and this attack on LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered) Texans will tear apart our families and remove our children from loving, stable families," the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas said in a statement.



now, i live in texas. i just heard this today. i have a gay brother in law i am deeding my kids to if husband and i die. gotta get a hld of my republican, catholic inlaw lawyers to find out if i give my kids to their gay son, if the state can then take my children away and put them in foster care.

[Solly Mack]

1. Disgusting

willing to deny a child a good home with good parents all because these so-called "culture of life" folks are filled with hate and bigotry.

They make me sick.

[seabeyond]

4. exactly, rip children from nurturing homes

where they are loved. pigs

[Richard Steele]

16. self-delete

[Richard Steele]

19. Link to Dallas News here; requires REG. (or bugmenot.com)

http://www.dallasnews.com/texassouthwest/legislature/

and login info at bugmenot:
http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dallsnews.com

[flamin lib]

2. action alert

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x10431



The Texas House has passed a new foster care bill that has an amendment on it to prevent Gay and Lesbian couples from fostering children. It would also initiate investigation of the $exu@l preferences of existing foster parents. The amendment was attached to Senate Bill 6 (SB 6) by Representative Robert Talton (R-Pasadena) who proposed two other anti gay bills earlier in the year, both of which died in committee. He bypassed the committee process by attaching the amendment to the larger foster parenting bill.


The Senate will vote on the bill soon. Call your State Senator and ask them to remove the Talton amendment before voting on the bill. If you don't know who your Senator is go here:http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/Members.htm#FYI

[seabeyond]

6. clarification please so i can fix my op

The legislation was adopted by a vote of 81-58.


it sounds like it has been voted on. yet in calling senator it sounds like it hasnt. i was told it was already voted on. can you correct me please

[flamin lib]

13. Passed in House, not Senate.

Talton tried to pass two anti-gay acts last year, but they failed in committee. He bypassed committee by amending the House foster care reform act.

There is hope. I spoke to my Senator's receptionist and told her that my very best friend is gay and that my daughter has a "fairy God Mother" and that the man enjoys the label. She laughed out loud and said that was so sweet. She did ask what I thought of the rest of the bill and I said I saw nothing repugnant about it.

[seabeyond]

14. i will call tomorrow. thank you

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Good luck if you have a republican

I've given up on writing (my senators are Frist and Alexander).

[rodeodance]

3. do you have a link please

[Selatius]

5. This is a gross, discriminatory, totalitarian measure

This is not the message of tolerance Jesus tried to teach before he was killed. This is just bigotry.

This isn't Jim Crow. This is Gay Crow instead.

[shanti]

33. yes, it's scary

isn't it? the state of texas has declared itself god. slippery slope stuff here.

[hypocrisyrules]

7. Welcome to the Twilight Zone

We have been invaded by aliens.

Any of you ever see that movie "They Live"? The one were Rowdy Roddy Piper (I think) put on those special glasses and everyone turned into Robot/Aliens?

I need to get me some of those glasses....oh, but wait, just look for an elephant on their shirt...

I think we should redub the Republican's the "Elephant Shirts" like the "brown shirts" in Facist Italy & Germany

[FreedomAngel82]

8. These people

are fucking disgusting! So, who would they rather have someone go to? A loving family who happens to be gay parents or an abusive home by straight parents? What if it came down to that choice? Who would they choose? Oh, right. As long as the kid isn't gay! Fucking pricks!

[CatholicEdHead]

22. Sounds like that South Park episode

where they kicked Big Gay Al out of Boy Scouts as a troop leader and they brought in that child molestor former marine.

The TX Legislature should watch this episode.

[Mnemosyne]

10. I was going to say unbelievable, but... n/t

:mad: :wtf: :grr: :nuke:

[PA Democrat]

11. So where will the poor kids affected by this be sent?

I would think most of these children have enough problems to deal with without another upheaval in their lives. I've always heard there was a shortage of foster parents in most parts of the country.

[CAMANY]

18. Custody of the state

nt

[PA Democrat]

27. Sad. Homophobes need to hate

trumps the children's need for a loving home.

[UCLA Dem]

12. Disgusting. State sanctioning of discrimination pure and simple.

:puke:

[Misunderestimator]

15. OMG!! From being FOSTER PARENTS??????

:wtf: is going on!? Bad enough that it's illegal to adopt in Florida. I can only assume that this also means it will become illegal to adopt in Texas too? And probably will become illegal to be a foster parent in Florida. Did this bill really pass?

[seabeyond]

17. passed in house, up to the senate n/t

[flamin lib]

28. Illegal to adopt now in Texas.

Fostering is the only way a gay couple can share love and have the experience of a family.

Two friends who bought a new home just so they would have the room to foster told me that fostering was the only way they could raise children in Texas. Said that they knew they'd get the hard cases and were prepared for crack babies and older children which was alright with them because they'd not have them placed and might have a defacto adoption.

Now that's a big heart.

[OneBlueSky]

20. these "enlightened" legislators are stupid, and they're abusing kids . . .

as a former long-term gay foster parent, I can tell you from personal experience that gays and lesbians often take in kids that no one else wants -- disabled kids, AIDS kids, older kids, etc. . . by eliminating gays as potential foster parents, these idiots are relegating many (probably most) of these kids to institutions and/or constantly changing foster settings . . . this is NOT about helping or protecting the kids . . . it is nothing more than bigotry and abject stupidity . . . who elects these troglodytes? . . .

[readmoreoften]

21. Gays Not Fit To Care For Children Who Are Abandoned.

That's how these articles should read. I have a friend who has custody of her nephew. She is a lesbian. Her sister (his mom), who was also a lesbian, commit suicide. His biological father recently died of cancer. Now she's raising him. They're best friends. He's 12 years old. Will Texas take his aunt away from him too, now that his mother and father have died?

I really hope not. This is all tragic.

[New Dealer]

23. Fucking Disgusting... This is worse than anything Bush has done IMO

43,000 families will be shattered by this. Why do Republicans claim to care about family values when they tear apart tens of thousands of families over bigotry and intolerence?

[Todd B]

24. Didn't you know?

Didn't you know? It's ok for rapists and child molesters to raise children, but damn it to hell if a loving, nuturing, gay couple wants to raise a family. That is just rediculous.

This was just more then I can take.. I mean, preventing gay couples from being married was bad enough but now you're passing judgement on whether or not they are suitable parents? Damn them. The Republicans and right-wing fanatical evangelicals that are fueling them are doing nothing more then ensuring a nice warm spot in hell for eternity.

Man, is it 2006 yet?! :(

[_TJ_]

25. Family values my ASS

these idiots are going to DESTROY perfectly happy families.

[JamboGuide]

26. To bad DALLAS is in Texas

I want to see SOUTHFORK RANCH soooooooo bad....

[ruggerson]

29. Question for DU lawyers

Isn't this blatantly unconstitutional under both the 14th amendment and the findings under Lawrence V Texas?

How could the state possibly defend "investigating" the sexual orientation of its citizenry?

[Telly Savalas]

30. Perhaps gays should be required to wear rainbow patches on their clothes.

So it will be easier to identify and persecute them.

Aside from the nauseating bigotry involved in this decision, there are privacy issues involved as well:

All future foster parents will be required to disclose their sexual preference on an application form, a legislative aide said.

Is there a box that says "None of your fucking business, you fascist fucks" that you can put a check next to on these forms?


Also, doesn't Texas still rank in the bottom 5 in high school graduation rates and SAT scores. Maybe these nimrods should worry about that instead. (Don't mean to dis all Texans with this. My home state is Kansas where a Hate Amendment to the constitution was recently approved by the electorate.)

[readmoreoften]

31. Or how about putting pink and black triangles on us? n/t

[Telly Savalas]

32. There ya go.

Although there's a huge chunk of the population who'd probably really back that.

[readmoreoften]

34. We are heading there.

Whether something diverts us from this path, only time will tell. But I can read the roadsigns and I know what highway we're on.