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There's been a strong reaction in Arkansas since the state Supreme Court threw out a child welfare agency ban on same-sex couples serving as foster parents. Arkansas was the only state to have such a regulation.
The court ruled that a foster parent's sexual orientation cannot be linked to a foster child's wellbeing. It found the state's Health Department had exceeded its authority and that the ban was based on morality and not on scientific merit.
Now, some state legislators are working to reinstate the ban. From member station KUAF in Fayetteville, Jacqueline Froelich reports.
JACQUELINE FROELICH reporting:
For Ann Shelly(ph), it all started when she watched a television talk show about homeless foster children.
And one by one they were telling these stories. These kids - they let the kids talk about what they wanted in a home - and I still get emotional talking about it now. Every one of them said, I just want to be loved. And I thought I can do that. I have plenty to provide for a child. I would love to do that.
FROELICH: But Shelly and her partner soon discovered they could not take in a foster child because they're lesbians.
The year was 1997, and the Arkansas Child Welfare Agency Review Board had just instituted a new regulation: children could not be placed in foster homes where homosexual adults reside.
The agency's intent was to protect children from disease, violence, sexual abuse, neglect and instability. The American Civil Liberties Union claimed the regulation was unconstitutional. They filed suit in circuit court against the State of Arkansas, and won.
This past June, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision on 50 findings of fact. ACLU Arkansas Executive Director, Rita Sklar.
Ms. RITA SKLAR (Executive Director, Arkansas Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union): The court found that in fact this policy did not promote the health, safety and welfare of children, that there was all the evidence to the contrary and no evidence put up by the state, by the way, showing that gay people might be bad foster parents.
FROELICH: But Republican State Senator Jim Holt says the courts have overstepped their jurisdiction and did not look at all the evidence.
State Senator JIM HOLT (Republican, Arkansas): The judge had said there were no studies to show that the homosexual family or the environment is problematic for the child, and there are thousands of studies. Actually, I've got over 10,000 here that show just the opposite.
FROELICH: That figure - 10,000 studies - is frequently cited by children's psychologist and Christian conservative, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. Senator Holt relied on that statistic and other data when he co-sponsored a failed bill seeking a ban on gay foster parents and adoption in 2005. Now he's counting on the 2007 legislature to reinstate a ban.
State Senator HOLT: I think the way the public opinion is going now, though, it's going to be in our favor and I think we'll have it passed with no problem.
FROELICH: That confidence has been echoed by both Democratic and Republican candidates around Arkansas. Within days of the Supreme Court ruling, they pledged to support a bill that would restrict foster parenting to legally married couples. Gay marriage was outlawed here in 2004.
As for Arkansas state child welfare officials, spokesperson Julie Munsell says her agency is disappointed that it can no longer place children in what it considers to be ideal environments.
Ms. JULIE MUNSELL (Spokesperson, Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services): A mother and father figure in the home, a two-parent married couple in the home.
FROELICH: In the meantime, foster children languish in the state's system. In 2004, the state counted 6,500. Twenty-two hundred were in some type of foster home, the rest in residential facilities.
For NPR News, I'm Jacqueline Froelich in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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