GOP Loon Justin Harris "Gave" His Adopted Kids To A Rapist

Justin Harris is an Arkansas Republican state lawmaker; he’s also the owner of a Christian pre-school. He and his wife adopted two young girls, but when things got a little tough, they basically gave the girls away.

In Arkansas, they call this “re-homing” and it’s perfectly legal; I guess, to Republicans and Christians, recycling children when you’ve grown tired of them, or it gets too hard, or becomes too much work, is just fine.

But the father of the family to whom Harris pawned off his two adopted daughters — a man whom Harris hired as a teacher at his Christian pre-school — raped the 6-year-old girl that Justin Harris gave him.

Justin Harris refuses to speak to the media, but released a statement through his lawyer:

"Representative and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home. Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how."

Odd, how the Harris’ are claiming to be the victims in all of this, when it was a six-year-old girl who was raped.

And it seems that their argument that there could have been "abandonment charges" seems unlikely, after Arkansas Department of Human Services [DHS] spokesperson Amy Webb said:

"[DHS] can intervene in a number of ways — do they need respite on the weekends? Does the kid really need some inpatient psych services, or additional therapy? … If none of that works, then they can come to us and say, 'We have exhausted all of our available resources. Please, help us. We cannot take care of this child.' And we will take that child back into custody if the family has exhausted all available resources, and we will do that without any repercussions for the family."

So the Harris’, if they were having trouble with these two girls, could have simply taken their case to DHS, who would have taken the girls back and then tried to have them adopted again. But it seems to me, that Justin Harris and his wife thought they might get a little bad press for “giving the girls back” and instead chose to “re-home” them to a man who would rape one of the girls.

I’m not saying Justin Harris knew what this rapist would do, but had they simply said to DHS, ‘We cannot do this,’ then one little girl might not have been sexually attacked; and two little girls might not be thinking, today, that they are just something that can be passed along from family to family because it was too hard to take care of them.

Apparently that’s what passes for a good Christian in the Justin Harris home. And to the Arkansas GOP, too; Justin Harris will face no legal punishment for his actions, and he has the full support of Republican leadership, who say this issue "is past tense." 

House Republican Majority Leader Ken Bragg said Harris is "a dedicated Christian," and "a family man with the highest integrity who cares deeply for the welfare of children."

Uh huh. Keep saying that and maybe one day those two girls might even believe it.

via NCRM

Georgia Is Still Anti-LGBTQ ...and Anti-Child

I’ve always maintained that even with the strides the LGBTQ community has made in recent years … equality! … that those on the right, er, wrong, would continue to find ways to make us less than.

And this week, the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples based on their religious beliefs.

Cuz, you know, God wants children with straight couples or with no one at all. I think that’s a commandment … ? But, in addition to denying same-sex couples full rights to adoption, the bill also would prohibit the Georgia Department of Human Services from taking “adverse action” against those so-called religious agencies who practice hate and intolerance.

The bill, like most Hate Bills, has one of those names that make it sound all sweetness and light—Keep Faith in Adoption and Foster Care Act—and was introduced, because, of course, by a Republican state Senator, William Ligon.

The best part of being a homophobic fuck is the extreme lack of logic in Ligon’s argument for the bill; he claims his bill allows for more adoption instead of less.

Yes, denying people the right to adopt paves the way for more children to be adopted …

This is what we still deal with in this country: hatred and homophobia and intolerance and ignorance and downright stupidity. And, yeah, children suffer too, all in the name of some asshat’s religious beliefs.

Georgia Voice

Kenfucky Judge Refuses To Hear Cases Involving Gay Adoptive Parents

You know, when the country elects a president who is vocal in his dislike for Muslims, his distrust of Mexicans, his thinking less than of women, we get what we deserve. We get a Supreme Court that may end up leaning more conservatively, we get walls, we get wars, we get relieved of our healthcare ... and we get Judge W. Mitchell Nance, carrying on the work of anti-LGBT bigot and poster child for ignorance, Kim Davis.

Nance, a family court judge who sits in Barren and Metcalfe counties in Kentucky, or, as I call it sometimes, Kenfucky, has announced he will no longer hear adoption cases involving “homosexual parties” because he believes allowing a gay person to adopt could never be in the child's best interest.

Yes, he did. Nance, who begins every court session by requiring everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, will recuse himself from all adoptions involving gay people because, as cited in a judicial ethics rule, he has a personal bias.

He hates gays.

Now, you can say, well, at least he recused himself from hearing those kinds of cases, but the fact is, Kentucky state law allows gay couples to adopt, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that all states must permit same-sex marriage, so he has set himself apart from following the law.

And what happens if he hears any other family court case involving gay parents, or gay children? Look, if he can’t lawfully do his job in regards to all of the people of Kentucky, then he shouldn’t do his job at all.

I mean, what about the judge who is anti-Muslim? Anti-Mexican? Anti-choice? Shouldn’t we hold judges to a higher standard, one that says they can put aside their own feelings and prejudices and follow the law?

Even in Kenfucky ...

Kentucky: Judge W. Mitchell Nance

On Paper As Parent And Child, Gay Couples Annul Adoptions To Marry

A few years ago, I got into an email argument with a, now former, friend, about marriage equality. I’d use another name for her, but why bother … her name is Meg.

Meg was raised Catholic; she went to Catholic schools and Catholic Church every Sunday. But Meg was not Catholic when I knew her unless Catholic in those days meant using birth control, having sex with several different partners, and living with a man without the benefit of marriage. That was the kind of Catholic Meg was … before she got married and began having her own Catholic children who went to Catholic schools and attended Mass on Sundays.

So, a few years after leaving California, right around the time Britney got married in Vegas for those couple of days, in an email with Meg I brought up the subject of marriage equality. Meg was dead set against it because … Catholic. I railed at her hypocrisy, reminding her of all the unborn children she never had because she used birth control and her boyfriend’s used condoms … not to mention that whole sex without marriage thing.

I simply asked why she believed I couldn’t, and shouldn’t be able to, get married and she said because it was against the teachings of “The Church,” though she seemed to not have a problem disobeying a lot of the teachings that involved her getting off, so to speak.

And when she asked why I wanted to get married, I said because, like everyone else it shows the world your love and commitment and vow to one another, just like she’d done with her marriage. And when I mentioned all the benefits that come with legally being married she asked why Carlos and I didn’t just adopt one another.

That was the end of that. I mean, adoption? I loved Carlos but adoption was for a parent and child, right? I mean, I would never ….

But some gay couples did in the olden days before same-sex marriage became legal everywhere in the country. Some same-sex couples would become parent and child — just on paper — to get the rights they were otherwise denied.

That's what Sergio Cervetti and Ken Rinker [pictured above] did years after meeting in the fall of 1965. Rinker was 19 at the time and just back from a trip to Europe with his student dance troupe when he met Cervetti. Two years later they moved in together and have considered themselves “married” ever since. But, for most of their lives there was no way for them to legally become family and another same-sex couple suggested adoption.

This was they could confer benefits like shared health insurance, make sure their partner was recognized as family in the event one of them became sick or passed away.

So in 2000, Cervetti adopted Rinker. But then, fifteen years later and suddenly the two men could legally marry one another anywhere they lived, and now there was an added dilemma; if they married, Cervetti could go to jail for marrying an adopted child. And so they took their case to court and, in as fast as ten minutes, the adoption was annulled. Just like that, they went from legally father and son to able to marry and in July, three months shy of their 50th anniversary, Cervetti and Rinker were wed.

I am thinking about my former friend Meg today and what she said to me way back when; her views haven’t changed and I am still offended by them. I know now, that for many gay couples, in those dark days where marriage equality seemed like it might never happen, it was the only way to make sure you could stay together as a couple and be protected.

Luckily, we no longer have to even consider that as an option. And even luckier is the knowledge that my marriage to Carlos, legal everywhere in this country, drives my old “friend” crazy.

NPR

An Eleven-Year-Old Schools One Million Moms Seventy-Four Thousand Moms

So, One Million Moms — actually, it’s more Seventy-Four-Thousand Moms — recently launched another one of their boycott campaigns against American Girl, a company that makes dolls and publishes a magazine for children—because an ad by the company featured … :::gasp::: … a married same-sex couple, Rob and Reece Scheer, who are raising four foster care children, including adopted daughter Amaya:

"One Million Moms Seventy-Four-Thousand Moms is extremely disappointed that American Girl, owned by Mattel, is promoting sin in the November/December 2015 issue of its magazine."

The sin is that a legally married same-sex couple is raising children, and so this rag-tag band of, probably not mothers but, bored Christian Loons pointed their followers to an article titled 'Forever Family' about adoption from foster care; and that’s a bad thing because the4 article included a large picture of a girl with her two dads, and their three other adopted children.

One Million Moms Seventy-Four-Thousand Moms then asked their followers to contact American Girl and tell them that as long as they are "pushing the homosexual agenda to children, your family will no longer be able to support the company, its magazine, or purchase its products."

Boo hoo. I could go on about hate, or about the need for people to adopt or foster children, and the way some of the Christian right chooses to ignore, and sometimes punish, those children, but, you know, sometimes there are others who say what I want to say, and say it better.

Amaya and her two dads, Rob and Reece, appeared on Fox’s ‘Good Day DC’ this week and Rob said that when he heard about the One Million Moms' Seventy-Four-Thousand Moms’ campaign against his family and American Girl, he was "shocked."

"These were moms! These were moms that were saying that my family was wrong, that the love that my husband and I are giving our four kids and what we’re doing was wrong. I would expect moms not to say these types of things about our family." — Rob Scheer

Rob then noted that, rather than urge boycotts against doll companies, and soup companies and cereal companies maybe these “moms” try and help the “364,000 kids in foster care."

And then Amaya, my new hero and idol, was asked what she had say to One Million Moms Seventy-Four-Thousand Moms and she said it better than her dad, and better than I ever could:

"This is none of your business."

Snap.

NCRM

Cari and Kim Are Finally Khaya's Two Moms

Well, it took nine years, but finally Khaya Searcy has his two moms.

Last week, after a four-year long battle to adopt a child, retired Alabama Circuit Court Judge James Reid granted the adoption of Khaya Searcy by Cari Searcy, the wife of Khaya’s biological mother, Kim McKeand.

Most ironic of all, however, is that even though all these two women wanted was to have both of them recognized as Khaya’s parents, that simple request — which turned out to be not so simple — was what spurred a federal judge to overturn Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage. Now, Cari and Kim are legally married in their state, and are both the legal parents of their child.

"It was such a surreal feeling when (Reid) said 'it's in the best interest of this boy to have two legal parents.' For me, that's when I broke down. It's very emotional and a day we've been waiting for a long, long time." — Cari Searcy

Back in 2011, Cari Searcy first filed paperwork in Mobile County Probate Court to legally adopt Khaya, whom she has raised since birth, but a year later, after a brief hearing, Judge Don Davis rejected the petition because, you know, The Gays and marriage wasn’t happening in Alabama.

In February 2015, a federal judge ruled that Searcy could not be denied her desire to adopt Khaya, a ruling that paved the way for same-sex marriage in Alabama, but a few hours before the law legalizing same-sex marriage was to begin, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered the state's probate judges to withhold same-sex marriage licenses pending the Supreme Court decision on the matter.

Cari Searcy filed another lawsuit because Judge Davis would not give final approval of the adoption until the Supreme Court case resolved the same-sex marriage issue. When Davis recused himself from the case, citing a second lawsuit, the adoption was put into limbo until Judge Moore could appoint a judge.

And in what I’d call full-circle moment of irony, Chief Justice Moore, one of the most virulent same-sex marriage opponents, appointed Judge Reid to oversee the case, and Reid granted the adoption.

So, nine years after Khaya was born, and five years after his mom sued to be his legal mother, Cari and Kim are now legally recognized as his parents; and, because of Cari’s quest to be a parent, we have now come to full equality on the marriage equality front.

It’s funny how one fight, one question, one adoption, could lead to so much change.

AL.com

Photo credit: Sharon Steinmann/ssteinmann@al.com

UPDATE: Justin Harris Is A Good Christian

It’s been scarcely a week since I first posted about Arkansas politician, Republican, and :::ahem::: good Christian man, Justin Harris, but let’s replay the back story:

Harris and his wife Marsha [above] adopted two little girls — a 3-year old and a 6-year old — but just over a year later, they “re-homed” the girls, which is a polite way of saying they gave them away, to another family, something that is perfectly legal in Arkansas where children can be traded like baseball cards and magazines. The husband in that family, Eric Cameron Francis, subsequently raped the 6-year old girl and two other little girls. 

Since the story broke, Congressman Harris, who owns a Christian preschool, has been attacking Arkansas' Department of Human Services [DHS], which arranged the adoption. Harris says he had no choice but to “re-home” or “give away” the girls because DHS threatened to charge him with child abandonment if he tried to give them back. Harris also claims these two girls were a danger to his family, and that his three boys were forced to sleep in their parents' locked bedroom … because the girls are demons.

Linda Blair say what?

It seems the Harrises were desperate to “re-home” the girls because they believed them to be dangerous, although others who knew the family, and the girls, say the two just needed specialized care, having been victims of neglect and sexual abuse before being removed from their original home and placed with DHS.

Chelsey Goldsborough, a babysitter for the Harris family, said one of the girls, "Mary," was kept away from her sister "Annie" and from the rest of the family, often locked in her room which was outfitted with locks, alarms and video cameras; the Harrises believed the girls were possessed by demons and could communicate telepathically.

"The first night I was over there, I just broke down and cried with this little girl because I just felt so bad for her." — Chelsey Goldsborough

Goldsborough also says the Harrises claim to have seen proof of demons in a photograph, saying they showed her a "picture of [Mary] where they're like, 'You can see the demon rising from her back,' and it just looked like a little 6-year-old to me."

Goldsborough says the Harrises hired specialists to perform an ‘exorcism’ on the girls while she waited outside the house with the boys; multiple other sources, who knew the family and the girls, confirm Goldsborough's account that the Harrises believed the girls were possessed. Naturally, Justin and Marsha Harris deny those claims and, through their attorney, say that “exorcisms and telepathy” are not part of their religious practice.

I hope DHS starts an investigation, and that someone can find those videos of a little girl locked in her room before she was given away like an old suit of clothes to the Salvation Army.

I can imagine it being hard to take in two children who came from such a horrendous, violent and unstable background, but then to simply give them away because it got too hard, is reprehensible. It does no good for those girls who probably were in need of specialized care ... not isolation and exorcism.

SIDENOTE: It appears this story will not go away soon; the Arkansas Times broke the story originally and are continuing their investigation into the Harrises and their home life.

photo and story sources: The Arkansas Times and NCRM

Justin Harris Is A 'Good' Christian

Justin Harris is an Arkansas Republican state lawmaker; he’s also the owner of a Christian pre-school. He and his wife adopted two young girls, but when things got a little tough, they basically gave the girls away.

In Arkansas, they call this “re-homing” and it’s perfectly legal; I guess, to Republicans and Christians, recycling children when you’ve grown tired of them, or it gets too hard, or becomes too much work, is just fine.

But the father of the family to whom Harris pawned off his two adopted daughters — a man whom Harris hired as a teacher at his Christian pre-school — raped the 6-year-old girl that Justin Harris gave him.

Justin Harris refuses to speak to the media, but released a statement through his lawyer:

"Representative and Mrs. Harris have suffered a severe injustice. Due to threats of possible abandonment charges, they were unable to reach out to DHS for help with children who presented a serious risk of harm to other children in their home. Upon the advice of both a psychiatrist and a pediatrician, they were forced to move the children to the home of trusted friends, who had a lot of experience with children with reactive attachment disorder. Rep. and Mrs. Harris are devastated about the outcome of that decision, but faced with no good option, they did the best that they knew how."

Odd, how the Harris’ are claiming to be the victims in all of this, when it was a six-year-old girl who was raped.

And it seems that their argument that there could have been "abandonment charges" seems unlikely, after Arkansas Department of Human Services [DHS] spokesperson Amy Webb said:

"[DHS] can intervene in a number of ways — do they need respite on the weekends? Does the kid really need some inpatient psych services, or additional therapy? … If none of that works, then they can come to us and say, 'We have exhausted all of our available resources. Please, help us. We cannot take care of this child.' And we will take that child back into custody if the family has exhausted all available resources, and we will do that without any repercussions for the family."

So the Harris’, if they were having trouble with these two girls, could have simply taken their case to DHS, who would have taken the girls back and then tried to have them adopted again. But it seems to me, that Justin Harris and his wife thought they might get a little bad press for “giving the girls back” and instead chose to “re-home” them to a man who would rape one of the girls.

I’m not saying Justin Harris knew what this rapist would do, but had they simply said to DHS, ‘We cannot do this,’ then one little girl might not have been sexually attacked; and two little girls might not be thinking, today, that they are just something that can be passed along from family to family because it was too hard to take care of them.

Apparently that’s what passes for a good Christian in the Justin Harris home. And to the Arkansas GOP, too; Justin Harris will face no legal punishment for his actions, and he has the full support of Republican leadership, who say this issue "is past tense." 

House Republican Majority Leader Ken Bragg said Harris is "a dedicated Christian," and "a family man with the highest integrity who cares deeply for the welfare of children."

Uh huh. Keep saying that and maybe one day those two girls might even believe it.

via NCRM

Nebraska Senators Nordquist and Morfeld: LGBT Allies

Out in Nebraska three same-sex couples are suing the governor, Dave Heineman, and two other officials over a longstanding state policy that prevents LGBT Nebraskans from becoming foster parents or adopting children in state custody because, you know, gay.

The policy dates back to 1995 when an administrative memorandum was issued by Mary Dean Harvey, then director of the Nebraska Department of Social Services, which stated:

"It is my decision that, effective immediately, it is the policy of the Department of Social Services that children will not be placed in the homes of persons who identify themselves as homosexuals."

As in me saying, “Hello! Nice to meet you! I’m Bob, the homosexual.”

Since then the policy has prohibited  HHS from issuing foster home licenses to, or placing children with, anyone who is gay, or even to  couples who are “unrelated, unmarried adults residing together,” meaning that, since 1995, Nebraska has said that single people, and gay people, and even heterosexual couples who aren’t married, are unfit to be parents.

Hence the lawsuit. One of the couples among the plaintiffs are Greg and Stillman Stewart, who adopted five children who now range in age from 13 to 20 from the California foster care system before moving to Nebraska:

“When we moved to Nebraska, we felt we could welcome other children in need of families now that our kids are grown, [but] when we called HHS to apply to become foster parents, we were told that despite our experience raising five wonderful children, we were not eligible.”

Gay; and hopefully these plaintiffs will win their suit against the state because, with so many children in foster care, and so many people, gay and straight, married and single, who wish to be foster parents, wouldn’t it be in the best interests of the child and not maintaining some bassackwards law?

And to that end, a few Nebraska lawmakers are expected to debate a bill in their next session that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation when determining the suitability of a placement or in issuing a foster care license, and would help remove barriers to placing children with someone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

One is Democratic Senator Jeremy Nordquist [top left], who introduced a bill to overturn the ban, which was heard by the Unicameral's Judiciary Committee last week; and the other is Democratic Senator Adam Morfeld [top right], who questioned anti-gay activist Greg Neuhaus, a fan of the ban, who told the committee he felt Nordquist’s bill is "promoting an agenda."

You know that elusive Gay Agenda, which we like to call Equality, but I digress …

Morfeld, who has also introduced pro-LGBT legislation, responded that Nordquist's measure would simply ban discrimination, to which Neuhaus replied that he is in favor of keeping The Gays from being foster parents as much as he is “opposed to placing a child with an unmarried heterosexual couple." 

"And why's that, sir?" Adam Morfeld asked.

"Because I don't think it's in the best interest of the child," Neuhaus said, to which Adam Morfeld, the son of a single mother replied:

"So, my mother was a single mother for 15 years. I grew up, I didn't get into trouble. I went to school. I went to school after working full-time for two years. I went to night school while working full-time for two years. I had a part-time job on top of that. And then I went to the University of Nebraska and worked my way through the University of Nebraska, and then after that I went to the University of Nebraska College of Law. During that time, I started a nonprofit that now employs 30 full- and part-time staff. My mother was a single mother. Did she do something wrong?"

"I didn't say she did. No," Neuhaus responded, though he sensed his big foot had entered his mouth and he tried to get up and leave the witness table after saying, "I'm not going to just be lectured to. If you want to ask me a question, I'll answer it."

Morfeld told Neuhaus that he could walk away, but he was going to finish regardless:

"Under your rationale, my mother who's a single mother likely isn't the most fit parent, and the point that I'm trying to make is that fit parents come in all shapes and sizes, all kinds of sexual orientations, and that's all I have to say. Thank you for your testimony."

Snap.

Jeremy Nordquist and Adam Morfeld; LGBT allies, and allies to foster children and families.

sources:

Towleroad
Journal Star
Aksarbent

The GOP Hates Children, Too

It’s fairly clear that the GOP doesn’t like The Gays because, many of them, most of the party, is working against marriage equality everywhere; hell, they’re against any and all legislation that might be deemed gay-friendly.

And we know the GOP is anti-women because this party, of mostly old men, wants to poke their noses into women’s vaginas — and not in the way a woman might enjoy — and wants to tells women what they can, and cannot, do with their own bodies, their own healthcare, and, well, doesn’t think women should earn as much as men even if doing the same job.

The GOP is also anti-immigrant, and uses fear-based rhetoric to spread their message; how many times have we heard the wingnuts like Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert suggest that these children, children, coming across the borders are only coming here to rape “our” women. Man, that’s anti-women — suggesting that we, I assume, men, own women — and anti-immigrant. And let’s be queer, it’s only the brown-skinned undocumented immigrants the GOP has trouble with, because you never hear them rant and rail against the white ones coming here illegally from Europe.

But now it appears that some in the GOP are anti-children, working to pass legislation to restrict who can adopt a child in this country.

There’s a new bit of federal legislation — S. 2706/H.R. 5285 — introduced this week by co-authors, and Republicans, of course, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, that would allow adoption or foster care providers to refuse service on the basis of their own personal religious objections.

And it affects everyone.

See, this new law, if passed, would allow a religious adoption agency from a non-Christian faith to refuse adoption services to a straight, Christian couple; a single parent seeking to foster a child could be denied; and, of course, let us not forget the gay and lesbian couples who would be told ‘No’ when asked if they might adopt a child.

Children, in need of a loving parent, adoptive or foster, would sit in orphanages or group homes because an adoption providers own personal religious beliefs will not allow that child to be adopted out to a loving home because, well, gay … or single … or of a different, i.e. bad, faith.

That’s the GOP people; working against LGBT rights, women’s rights, the brown-skinned, Hispanic speaking immigrants, and now children.

Is that the kind of party we want in an elected office? In any elected office?

via Human Rights Campaign

In Texas, Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs Are Not The Legal Parents Of Their Own Children

Earlier this week, I featured a couple of asshats — Rick Perry and Connie Trube — from the great state of Texas, and, maybe, I suggested that they made the Asshat Team, in part, because they are from Texas. For about a half-second I felt bad, lumping some of the more rational people of that state into the Asshat File, but then I heard this story and it makes me think the asshats are in charge out there, and maybe that fence that some Texans want to build to keep the rest of us out, should be built, only it should be used to keep the Texans inside.

Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs are a same-sex couple and the fathers of Lucas and Ethan, who were born via a surrogate mother. Through the miracle of modern medicine, each one of these men is the biological father of one of the babies; but, and here’s where Asshat Texas comes in, because the state has a ban on same-sex marriage — though it was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last February, the decision was stayed pending appeal — and because a Texas judge can use his or her own discretion in these cases, neither one of the men is on the birth certificates of either one of the boys, and they have not been allowed to co-adopt each other’s biological child.

Only the surrogate mother — who has no biological relationship to the boys, since embryos were transferred to her — is on the birth certificates. The fathers of these two boys—and let’s be queer, the biological fathers of the boys are Jason and Joe—are not legally defined as the parents of their own children.

Their.Own.Children. How bassackwards does this get?

And even with DNA proof that Jason is the biological father on one son, and Joe the biological father of the other, if something happened to either one of those two men, those two fathers, the other would not be able to adopt the other’s son.

“As of right now in Texas two men cannot be on the birth certificate. So our attorney followed the letter of the law. We petitioned the court. We had DNA testing there [in court] and petitioned the judge to ultimately remove the surrogate mother from the birth certificate, who has no biological ties to the boys. We would like each biological dad to be placed on the birth certificate of our own son, and then ultimately proceed to the second-parent adoption. The entire petition was denied.” — Jason Hanna

Are they asking for so much? I mean, all they want is to have their names listed as the biological parent to one of the boys, and then allow the other father to adopt the other child. They simply want to be parents, but in the state of Texas only the surrogate, who has no biological connection to either child is the legal parent.

What makes this even more unfair is that the judge in this case didn’t follow any precedent. Other same-sex couples in Texas, including friends of Jason and Joe, have successfully completed this same process, but since the judge can make up her own mind and do whatever she wants, and because Jason and Joe cannot legally marry in Texas, she has decided that the men cannot be on the birth certificate, nor can they adopt each other’s son.

How is this right? How do you tell a father that he cannot adopt the sibling of his own child because he’s a gay man? How is that fair? How does a judge tell two men who fathered two children that they cannot be listed on the birth certificate, but the surrogate mother, a stranger, really, to both boys, can be called their mother?

We’ve got a long way to go in this country to make things right, and Texas has even a longer way to go, when they can tell parents that they aren’t allowed to be the parents of their own children simply because they’re a gay couple.

source

Good News Friday: Zac and His Two Dads

Zac didn't have that Norman Rockwell childhood so many of us picture in our heads while reminiscing. On  his eighth birthday, Zac was surrounded by police, watching his birth mother being arrested because, as Zac remembers, she had "many boyfriends and she did a lot of drugs and partying."


After that Zac moved from foster home to foster home.....to foster home--twelve in all--until, finally, a couple in Berkeley wanted to adopt him. Arturo and Dave wanted to be his dads. Zac's first thought? "I never had a dad, now I get to have two!"


This past Christmas, Zac wrote a letter to his fathers--whom he calls Dad and Dadio--and to his adopted brothers, Nick and Derrick. It was his Christmas gift to them:

To my Family, This is the first Christmas letter that I have ever written. I feel like since I am getting older, I should start writing a letter to the family or just talk about how I thought the family's year has gone until Christmas.

Ever since I ended up in this family people have told me that I was lucky. I have always known that I am lucky, especially when I have two dads that love me so much as Dad and Dadio. My family is very special to me. Even when we fight and even when we argue, I know they will always love me. Yes I am a lucky boy to have ended up here after spending so many years in foster care and not knowing if I would ever have a family.

I didn't grow with a dad. My birthmom had many boyfriends and she did a lot of drugs and partying. My sisters and me were taken from her on my eighth birthday. It was not fun to have police in my room on that day. It made me sad and this sadness I carried for many years and it got me in a lot of trouble. Then I landed in a great foster home after having lived in 12 different homes in three years. It was when I lived there that both my foster mom and social worker told me there was a family that wanted me. There was a catch: it was two dads!

Honestly, it didn't matter to me. I told them, "well, I never had a dad, now I get to have two!"

The start was tough and rough, and I put them through hell and back. I did awful and nasty things to them both. I stole their credit card and spent thousands of dollars online. When we went on my first vacation out of the country, I stole stuff from a souvenir stand - they found out and made me go back to the shop to return the souvenirs and made me pay the lady who owned the shop for the stolen property which then I had to give to a local kid. I didn't get it and thought they were being mean.

When I stole their American Express and maxed it buying stuff online I was only 12 years old. They were very upset, but Dad made sure I got the message of how serious this was. He took me to our local police station and reported me to the police captain for having stolen again. I was taken to an interrogation room and talked to by three police officers. All the time there I only wanted my Dad to come in and bring me home. I wanted to turn time back to before my stealing so I would not be there and I would not have hurt my parents so much. I learned my lesson and NEVER stole again!

But Dad and Dadio brought not just me into this family. They also added my brother Derrick. What I can say about Derrick is that he is really cool, he is funny, he is an awesome gay guy, he is a one of a kind guy, he is my bro. Next they added Nick. Nick can get on my nerves sometimes, but in the end he is pretty cool. He is a fast learner when it comes to math and multiplying numbers. And with that said, I will go to the roots of the family.

Dad and Dadio. They are my parents and they are always here when I need them.

When it is dark they are the light, When I feel frightened and chill's, They are the warmth I feel. When I am hungry they cook my meals.

I did not put a lot of time into the poem, but in the poem you see my parents. The people that show me the light. The people that warm my heart when it gets dark. The people that cook my meals. If I could only ask for anything for Christmas I would only ask for my family.

By Zac 

Well. Whenever i hear a Rick Santorum, or a Michele Bachmann, or Newt or Sarah or Mitt, say that a child needs a mother and a father, I'm gonna think of Zac, and Dad and Dadio.


Family isn't always what you're born into, quite a lot of times family is what you make of things.


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Catholic Church Continues To Abuse Children

In Illinois, bishops in three dioceses have announced that they have dropped their lawsuit against the state, and will shut down their adoption and foster care programs, after a civil union law required them to provide their services to same-sex couples.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, and Bishop Daniel Conlon, all agree that the "decision not to pursue further appeals was reached with great reluctance, but was necessitated by the fact that the State of Illinois has made it financially impossible for our agencies to continue to provide these services. Since we now need to close offices and lay off employees, further appeals would be moot.”

Um, except you wouldn't have to close facilities and lay off any people if you would simply let gay people adopt of foster children. I mean, you Catholics spend so much time saying it's all about the children, and you work for the children and you want to protect the children, but then you shut down an agency that would do so because you want to punish gay people for being gay.

Which, as always, begs the question: if you're going to stop your adoption and foster services because you might have to let a child live with a gay person, or gay couple, where is this holier than thou stance when it comes to Catholic priests raping children?

::::::cricket:::::

That's the Catholic church, protecting children from gay people, but not from pedophile priests.

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