A measure that would prohibit unmarried
couples living together from fostering or adopting children in
Arkansas will appear on the fall ballot, The Associated Press
reports. While the initiative bans both same-sex and opposite-sex
couples, organizers admit they're targeting gay couples.
The measure, which was on life-support
when the Family Council Action Committee (FCAC) was given an extra 30
days to round-up additional signatures for a deficit proposal in
July, has been certified for the ballot by Secretary of State
Charlie Daniels.
The group says it is pursuing the
measure because it believes children thrive best when raised by
married couples.
“Arkansas needs to affirm the
importance of married mothers and fathers,” Family Council
President Jerry Cox told The Associated Press. “We need to
publicly affirm the gold standard of rearing children whenever we
can. The state standard should be as close to that gold standard of
married mom and dad homes as possible.”
The Arkansas Adoption Act makes it
illegal for adoptive and foster care children to be placed in homes
with individuals who cohabit with a sexual partner. Single people,
living alone, would be free from the restrictions.
Family Council is the Little Rock based
organization largely responsible for placing a constitutional ban
against gay marriage in Arkansas in 2004.
The FCAC lists three primary reasons
for the law: For the safety of children, to increase the number of
prospective homes, and to “blunt a homosexual agenda.”
“[The Arkansas Adoption Act] is about
two things. It's about child welfare, first of all. Secondly, it is
to blunt a homosexual agenda that's at work in other states and that
will be at work in Arkansas unless we are proactive about doing
something about it,” Jerry Cox told Fox16 News.
The organization's website expands on
the group's position, by saying: “Laws have been passed in eight
states that support the homosexual agenda when it comes to the
adoption or foster care of children. Arkansas has no law to prevent
homosexual adoption. Homosexuals are adopting children and this will
continue until a law is passed.”
“The primary concern of the state of
Arkansas, and the voters in the state, should be the best interests
of the children, and this measure fails that test in spades,”
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Director of
Communications Steve Ralls told On Top Magazine. “Lesbian
and gay couples from coast to coast are giving homes and second chances to
foster children and building strong families. There is nothing
pro-family about denying children the opportunity to be part of a
loving family,”
The FCAC went to work on the law after
the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a 1999 Child Welfare Agency
Review Board rule banning gay and lesbian couples from serving as
foster parents after a seven-year battle.