The Arkansas Supreme Court used its common sense today to rule that it’s unconstitutional to disqualify foster parent applicants based solely on their sexual orientation.
The justices rejected an appeal from the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services which had argued children would suffer under the care of gays or lesbians.
“There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual,” Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote in the opinion.
“The Arkansas Supreme Court clearly understood what social scientists and every respected child welfare organization have been saying for years: There is no reason to deprive children of good homes by excluding lesbian and gay people from serving as foster parents,” said Rita Sklar, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arkansas.
“We have a shortage of foster homes in Arkansas, especially for teenagers and sibling groups. Thanks to today’s ruling, Arkansas’ foster children have a better chance of finding loving homes.”
The ban on placing foster children in homes with gay adults was imposed in 1999, supposedly to protect the children from “disease, violence, sexual abuse, neglect and instability”. Hmmm. I bet most of them were removed from their presumably heterosexual birth parents because those parents were already subjecting them to those things. If the Arkansas DHHS wants to base its decisions on stupid blanket assumptions, maybe it should ban straight foster parents.
“There is already a rigorous individualized screening procedure in place that ensures that only those who can provide a safe, stable, healthy home are approved as foster parents,” said Leslie Cooper, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, who argued the case before the court.
“Today’s ruling means that gay people will go through the same screening process as any other applicants, rather than be automatically rejected no matter how qualified they are.”
Just as I said — common sense. And more opportunities for kids in need to find loving homes.