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.