Ethics

Chapman on Gay Adoption

By Ed Brayton

Steven Chapman of the Chicago Tribune has a column defending gay adoption and slamming the anti-gay right at, of all places, Townhall. Speaking of the Florida court overturning that state's ban on adoption by homosexuals, he writes:

You could hardly find better proof than this that efforts to combat the "homosexual agenda" mainly serve to harm children in dire need of stable, loving families. Four years ago, Martin Gill and his longtime partner agreed to provide a foster home for two boys, one 4 years old and the other an infant, who showed the physical and emotional effects of neglect, including scalp ringworm.

Now a legal guardian who regularly observes the boys attests that they are, in the judge's words, "in excellent health, well-behaved, performing well in school and bonded to" their foster family. They have a dog, a cat and a rabbit. They attend a church.

But they have also spent four years in limbo. The adults whom they have come to regard as parents were only foster caregivers. Because of his sexual orientation, the state would not allow Gill to become their permanent, adoptive father.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 03, 2008 (boomark / email).