Brownwood CPS Cases, Republican Talton & Banning Gay Foster Parents
House OKs CPS bill, bans gay foster care
GOP lawmaker tacks on measure late; joint talks with Senate ahead
10:39 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 19, 2005
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – The Texas House approved a sweeping overhaul of protective services for children and adults Tuesday, including a last-minute amendment that would ban gays, lesbians and bisexuals from serving as foster parents.
The amendment, tacked on by Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, was deemed "unworkable" by Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, sponsor of the overall House bill. But Ms. Hupp voted with the majority as the amendment was approved, 81-58.
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Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, a co-author of the bill who is likely to be named to the conference committee, said he's not sure if the gay foster ban would survive.
"I would hope the Senate will have a little more sense ... and be a little bit more sensitive," he said.
The ban on gay foster parents, which Mr. Talton had previously failed to push past House committees, came late and unexpectedly.
Mr. Talton convinced his colleagues that all current and prospective foster parents be required to declare their sexuality. Those who declare themselves – or are later found to be – gay, lesbian or bisexual would be disqualified.
"It is learned behavior," Mr. Talton said of homosexuality.
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The amendment brought swift objection from Kathy Miller, president of the progressive Texas Freedom Network.
"The House today put personal and political biases ahead of the interests of children who have been abused and neglected," Ms. Miller said, adding that the measure would "further strain a foster system that is already overburdened, forcing more children into institutions rather than safe, loving homes."
"Texas children who most need the state's protection have been cast aside in favor of a narrow, mean-spirited agenda."
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042005dntexnucps.2a8b5f58.html
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Maybe Republican Robert Talton's Attitude is a " Learned Behavior " !
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Neo-Con Republicans mantra: " Blame it on the Gays "
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What Neo-Con Republicans Robert Talton and James Williamson don't want you to see...
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From the Austim American Statesman
EDITORIAL
Narrow-minded amendment
EDITORIAL BOARD
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Maybe common sense will prevail when dueling versions of legislation overhauling Texas' child and adult protective services gets worked out in conference committee.
It's difficult to gauge what's more outrageous in the House's amendment barring gays, lesbians and bisexuals from being foster parents: the appalling ignorance behind the amendment, or the potential harm to children in foster care.
There is no objective reason to prohibit gays from being foster parents, and none was offered in the Legislature. There are no studies suggesting that homosexuals are any worse than heterosexuals at caring for children; it's just a bias, plain and simple.
The amendment's sponsor, state Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, thinks people choose to be gay or lesbian, and he doesn't want them fostering children. In a preposterous statement, he said foster children might "choose to be homosexual or lesbian, then that's their choice when they turn 18." But until then, he wants them in traditional families.
Unfortunately, by limiting foster families, many of those children will end up in institutions and state care, not traditional families. And that's not good for the children who need love and attention. And it's not good for the state because it costs more money.
It is shocking that 81 House members supported Talton's ridiculous amendment. It would be a show of integrity to have that amendment stripped from an already difficult bill when it goes to conference.
source: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/04/21foster_edit.html
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Dallas Morning News Editorial
Kids Before Politics: Ban on gay foster parents drags down bill
12:02 AM CDT on Friday, April 22, 2005
Problem: You have a shortage of something you really need.
Solution: You turn aside some of the very people who are willing to supply it.
That's what the Texas House did this week when it loaded down the bill reforming the state's child protection system with an amendment that would block gays and lesbians from becoming foster parents.
Fortunately, Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Senate seem cool to the idea. We urge them to freeze this counterproductive idea in its tracks.
The amendment's author, Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, said it's necessary to keep children out of gay homes because homosexuality is "learned behavior." Leaving aside the many ways government goes astray when it decides to regulate private morality, let's look squarely at Mr. Talton's assertion.
Because, in the judgment of the American Academy of Pediatrics, if homosexuals learn their sexual orientation, they don't learn it from gay parents. After reviewing the available research, the academy concluded that children raised in homes with gay or lesbian parents are no more likely than other children to identify themselves as homosexual when they reach adulthood.
"A growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with 1 or 2 gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual," the analysis concludes.
Mr. Talton assuredly wants to do what is best for the children. But he's wrong about what that is. As things stand now, thousands of children who are removed from dangerous homes in Texas are forced to live in institutions and group homes because there aren't enough foster homes.
All foster homes should be rigorously screened. Some gay and lesbian applicants will be found unsuitable – for the same reasons some heterosexuals are found unsuitable. Meanwhile, the Legislature should stop charging after imaginary problems and tackle the very real and pressing ones – like providing foster homes for children who desperately need them.
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/042205dnedifoster.33f6c94c.html
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Letter to the editor
Sad over amendment
Re: "Anti-gay language spurs concern over CPS bill," yesterday's news story.
I was greatly saddened and embarrassed for the members of the Texas House upon learning that the banning of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals from serving as foster parents had passed as an amendment to the CPS overhaul bill.
As a former child welfare worker in Illinois, I know how difficult it is to place children in safe, loving and permanent homes. There are countless instances where children have been removed from foster parents who are Christian and heterosexual because they were being abused and neglected.
Members of the Texas House have removed a valuable resource for CPS workers because they want to continue to advance an ideological agenda.
And what of foster children who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered? They exist. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to allow them the option to live with a nurturing and understanding family?
William Hamel, Dallas
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/042205dnedifriletters.33f6f4f6.html
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Young: Shades of Ol' Jim Crow
JOHN YOUNG, Opinion page editor, Waco Tribune Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Someday, my friend and I agree, we'll look back at this period in much the same way people look back at the days of tail fins, sock hops and "colored" drinking fountains.
Someday, we agree, understanding, acceptance and a broader sense of justice will have overcome the raw politics of division that seem to rule today.
Someday, we agree, when a person stands up for the rights of individuals who are contributing every day in every way to a better society, that person will not be accused of supporting the "gay agenda."
Someday. But not today.
Wednesday the Texas House passed a bill that would prohibit gays and lesbians from being foster parents.
The amendment, added to a restructuring of Child Protective Services, would require foster-care applicants to state their sexual orientation.
The author, State Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, said his intent is to protect foster children from a bad influence. Homosexuality, he said in The Dallas Morning News , "is learned behavior."
Maybe once this session is over, Talton will take to the road and show us the evidence backing up his statement. If it were the case – that homosexuality spreads by contact – we should get serious about rounding up these contagions in modern-day leper colonies.
When discrimination ruled
Someday, my friend and I agree, people who exploit issues like this will be viewed the way history now sees George Wallace, Lester Maddox and other professional segregationists.
They coasted on fear and inference through prosperous political careers. They jailed people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers for seeking basic civil liberties. Now we have an MLK Day. Medgar Evers is venerated. Lester Maddox's day has passed.
As it is, however, a politician can coast a long way today on that other, more current, more convenient hot-button issue based on human prejudice.
Gay marriage is illegal in our state. It's a non-issue. Yet, Rep. Talton has teamed with State Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, to author a constitutional amendment to ban it. A House committee has approved it.
Actually, the authors want to go further than keeping same-sex couples away from the altar. Talton's original bill would deny same-sex partners any of the varied benefits or protections granted to life partners, or "any legal status similar to marriage for unmarried persons." Critics assert this would deny gay couples such things as hospital visitation rights, inheritance and health care benefits. That add-on didn't make it out of committee. But it could get attached on the floor.
"For the first time in history these amendments would actually write discrimination into the Texas Constitution, a document that is supposed to ensure equal rights for all Texans," says Houston educator Sue Null.
Null has a vested interest. She has a gay son and lesbian daughter, and is active in the Houston chapter of Parents and Friends for Lesbians and Gays – PFLAG. But we should all have a vested interest when laws discriminate against people based on what they are. Surely we did when civil rights legislation chased Jim Crow out of town.
Human rights aside, there's another serious problem with rejecting caring, law-abiding citizens who would provide foster care. This state is in a terrific pinch to tend to the many children who need it. Last year McLennan and Hill counties had to remove more than 550 abused and neglected children from their homes and find them foster homes.
The rationale by which the state would reject gays and lesbians from providing this crucial service could be used for any job – teacher, social worker, volunteer. Of course, we know that gays and lesbians serve those roles ably. The issue in deciding if one is fit for a job, or a scholarship, or to eat in a particular restaurant, is how one comports one's self, nothing more and nothing less.
That was the issue that brought Dr. King to the barricades.
Someday today's most convenient and inflammatory political hot button will be history. Someday, not today.
John Young's column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com.
source: http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/04/21/20050421wacyoung_col.html
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Abilene Reporter News Letter to the editor
Foster parent bill
April 23, 2005
I am a straight male. Always have been, always will be. But this business of making it illegal for gays to be foster parents disturbs me. It wasn't so long ago that it was illegal for people of different races to marry, and now it happens all the time. And yes, I've heard all the objections to gays being foster parents. 'Gays will turn kids gay.' Wrong. People are born gay, not made. 'Gays will molest our kids.' Wrong again. The vast majority of child molesters are straight men. 'It's morally wrong.' That's the same argument that kept people of different races from marrying. If this law is allowed to pass, it will legalize discrimination, plain and simple. We don't let it happen in Iraq - why should we let it happen here?
Bryan Bell
Abilene
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