More on Arkansas Proposition

Ezra Klein, with thoughts on the extremely disappointing victory for Christian moralists in Arkansas that will almost certainly result in more children being consigned to foster care:

My two nephews are adopted. I love them more than I could possibly express here. And there's no doubt of what an important, unalloyed good adoption has been for their lives, and for our family. But in Arkansas, the Family Research Council and variety of other "Christian" organizations drew up a ballot initiative "that would make it illegal for any individual cohabiting outside of a valid marriage to adopt or provide foster care to minors." In other words, not only are gay couples prohibited from providing a loving home to children who need one, but so too are straight couples who are unmarried. And Arkansas is not a state with a surfeit of willing caregivers: They have foster homes for only 1/3rd of the children who need them. This initiative will not really harm gay couples, who can adopt in another state. And it will not really harm straight couples, who are similarly mobile. But it will do enormous harm to children who desperately need a safe and stable and caring home. It is a sad testament to the ferocity of modern bigotry that the organizations in support of Initiative One were willing to harm children in order to strike a symbolic blow against gay and unmarried couples. It is even sadder that the people of Arkansas were willing to indulge such base revulsion, and had so little concern for the children that fate has heedlessly placed in their care.

Is it any wonder that many of us on the left are turned off by "compassionate" Christians who put their personal beliefs ahead of the actual welfare of children?

Proposition Update

My apologies for not keeping you updated last night on the various propositions of note; I simply had my hands full keeping up with various House and Senate races, and races here in Texas. That being said, here's where we stand this morning:

California:

Proposition 8 (defining marriage as between a man and a woman): Well, despite declarations that the proposition was both failing and passing, it remains too close to call this morning. 95% of precincts are reporting and "yes" leads by four percent but there's reluctance to call it until almost all votes are counted.

Proposition 2 (requires improvements in the treatment of factory farmed animals): this measure passed easily, by a whopping 27%.

Colorado:

Amendment 48: a measure that would defined "personhood" from the moment of conception was utterly destroyed, losing by 50%.

South Dakota:

Initiated Measure 11: a less restrictive version of the abortion ban that failed in 2006, this measure also goes down in flames.

Arkansas:

Proposed Initiative 1: a measure to ban unmarried couples (gays, that is) from adopting or serving as foster parents passes. Arkansas children suffer.

Arizona:

Proposition 102: bans gay marriage; passed.

Florida:

Marriage Protection Amendment: even though gay marriage is already illegal in Florida, this measure changes the constitution just to be on the safe side (you can never be too careful with those gays, I guess.) It passed with 62% of the vote.

So the Christian moralists gain no traction on the issue of abortion, but apparently appeals to discrimination against gays still work. I sincerely hope change in that regard is not too far down the road.

California's Proposition 8 Failing/Arkansas Measure Succeeding

I don't have a thread for this, but know that exit polls are showing that the anti-gay marriage initiative in California is faltering(via Andrew Sullivan.) Unfortunately, it appears that the ballot initiative in Arkansas that would ban unmarried couples (read, gay couples) from adopting or serving as foster parents has passed.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. It looks like Proposition 8 is likely to pass, thus amending the California constitution to limit marriage to heterosexuals.

UPDATE II: See our newest post for a more comprehensive treatment of various state ballot initiatives.

Arkansas Initiative Faltering

I wrote in August about a ballot iniatiative put forth in Arkansas by the conservative Family Council that would ban unmarried couples from adopting. The initiative is of course aimed at gay couples who wish to adopt, but anti-gay activists couldn't care less about the over-inclusiveness of their initiatives as long as it manages to hit some gays in the process. NPR reports though that the initiative is faltering though, and recent polls indicate that a majority of Arkansans are opposed to the measure. Jerry Cox, director of the Family Council Action Committee, is quoted in the piece as saying that the Family Council sponsored this measure because they were concerned about the welfare of adopted children and wnated to blunt the "gay agenda" which is using these children as "pawns to gain legitimacy for the gay lifestyle", or in other words, gays are adopting children only so they can indoctrinate them about the virtues of gay life or (gasp!) turn them gay. Never mind that Arkansas is struggling to find enough foster parents for all the children who need foster care, and that without the option of being adopted by gay parents, many of these children will grow up never having known a stable household or two parents who love them; to people like Cox, kids are better off in institutions being fed cold porridge than they are with two parents who can provide for them if thsoe parents are gay. If the trend holds, a majority of Arkansans will indicate on Nov. 4th that they disagree. 

AR Ballot Initiative Would Ban Gays from Adopting/Fostering

Because you know, they have SO MANY people in Arkansas willing to adopt and foster kids who don't have homes that the state can afford to just ban people wholesale from doing so. Honestly, it's this kind of stuff that just makes it all too easy to accuse conservatives of only caring about kids BEFORE they're born...because the accusation is right.