Scary Shit...

Texas bill aims to ban gay foster parents

Hubby and I have been following this for a while, waiting to see what the extremely conservative, homophobic Texas law makers will decide. It boggles my mind how they can make the judgement that being gay/lesbian/bisexual makes you unfit to be a foster parent (and in Florida - makes you unfit to be an adoptive parent). I fear this bill passing. Fear what will come next if this does pass - banning gays/lesbians/bisexuals from adopting. Then what? Making it possible for the state to take children from parents who are not straight? Make it illegal to be anything other than 'straight'?

I don't think the lawmakers are considering the impact of this bill very well. The Texas foster system is extremely over loaded at the moment. By making it illegal to foster if your GLB that would take several foster families out of the pool and would eliminate many other potential foster families. This is a potentially dangerous situation. Over crowding in Foster Homes just leaves the door open to abuse and neglect - for children who are already being removed from their home environment due to alleged abuse and neglect. Though there would be relatively few foster families affected by this bill passing, any number of foster homes being affected is too many.

For an agency who is supposed to be so 'concerned for child welfare' they aren't thinking this through very well. If you are in Texas, take the time to write your state representative about this.

Texas Government Online and Texas Legislature Online

Hmmm.. is it obvious that I have a very dim view of Child Protective Services? ;o)