RepubliFear

The hot-button issue of gay adoption has made the rounds recently. I personally find it important to fight for gay rights issues, because I feel they’re the only group left in this country to which actual legal discrimination can be applied, with full consent with the law.

In Maine for example, if you wished to evict someone, deny them a bank loan, or fire them from their job because they were female or black, you’d be sued, and you’d lose the case. Up until last November, if you wanted to do the same to someone – ONLY based on their sexual orientation – you could do so without the threat of prosecution...and in many cases, persecution.

Maine has been voting and rejecting equal rights laws pertaining to gays and lesbians for decades. That is simply amazing to me, and if you really want to get examples of legislation voting that is fear and myth-based, I urge you to read about the vote mentioned above.

Lest you wondered why Bush constantly reminds people of terror and war post-9/11. Or why the Republican National Convention was 100% about terrorism. Or why the RNC will send surrogates to attack the Patriotism of decorated Veterans on a weekly basis. Or why anyone who calls themselves a conservative is also hyper-nationalist and obnoxiously over-symbolic, it must be understood that when you don’t have a political platform that makes sense factually, you need to pray on people’s primal instincts of fear and protection in order to win.

- See immigration: the Mexicans are coming to take your jobs! (nevermind that immigration keeps our economy from collapsing)
- See welfare debates: people too lazy to work are taking your tax dollars! (pay no attention to the fact that most welfare recipients are working single parents, and children)
- See the Social Security debate: there will be no money left! (nevermind the fact that privatization will really kill the program)
- See Iraq: they are going to bomb us TOMORROW! (nevermind the fact that we have intelligence stating there are no WMD’s)
- See Women’s Reproductive Rights: they’ll be abortions on demand! (nevermind a woman’s right to choose saving her own life, or that abortions decreased during the previous pro-choice administration
- See Sex Education: Your kid is going to run out and have sex right after class! (nevermind that studies show those who are educated use birth control and are more safe and mature about sex)

So it should be no surprise then, when any conservative plays the child molestation card when speaking of gay adoption. Tennessee state representative Debra Maggart wants the countless thousands of kids waiting in foster care for parents to know that they’ll be waiting a little bit longer if Mary and Sue want to give them a better chance at life:

"We also have seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and
have, in some instances, adopted them in order to have unfretted access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse. I have strong convictions. I just feel kids in our foster have been through enough.”

Take a wild guess as to whether or not Maggart is religiously affiliated. Anyone want to take a stab at that? Google her name and look at the description immediately following for your shocking answer.

Again, here’s an example of fear superseding fact. If the state congresswoman or anyone ignorant enough to vote for her just did five minutes of research, they’d find that children who are placed in households with gay parents are loved, cared for, and completely well-adjusted, without any deviation from those who are placed with straight parents.

They’d also find out what one of the leading authorities regarding adoption, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, says about gay parents embracing foster children:

"Laws and policies that preclude adoption by gay or lesbian parents disadvantage the tens of thousands of children mired in the foster care system who need permanent, loving homes," the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute says in the report to be issued Friday.

It advises agencies and officials to make firm statements in support of such adoptions, forsaking a "don't ask, don't tell" approach which prompts some gays to feel their chances of adopting hinge on being discreet about their sexual orientation. Adoption agencies should energetically recruit gays and lesbians, including them in outreach programs and parenting panels, the institute said.

This major adoption agency is not alone. Joining their sediments are:

- The American Psychological Association.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics.
- The American Academy of Family Physicians.
- The American Psychiatric Association
- The American Psychoanalytic Association
- The Child Welfare League of America
- The North American Council on Adoptable Children
- The National Association of Social Workers…

And believe me, this is the short list.

Honestly, if you really wanted to point the molestation finger at someone, you’d discover that the group doing most of the molesting are heterosexuals, not homosexuals. And by quite a margin. Over 90% of convicted child molesters are heterosexual in their adult relationships.

The Boy Scouts ran into this statistic the hard way, as they have a policy of banning gay men from the Scouts, while at the same time their straight, married program director Douglas Smith was caught with child porn. Woops!

Unfortunately, conservative politicians and the Scouts aren’t the only ones who try to get you to buy into the fear. The Boston Catholic Diocese, as well as my local Catholic Charities organizations are against gay anything, especially adoption. But hey, if anyone knows about child molestation, it’s the Catholic Church.

When you discover the staggering amount of well-organized, religiously affiliated organizations and people in roles of leadership who constantly preach gay people are less-than, don’t count, and should be barred from having the same rights as us normal people do – from conservative state politicians, to the Republican National committee, up to the President and the Pope – are you REALLY surprised when fringe groups show up at soldiers’ funerals with signs that say, God Hates Fags?” It’s a lot easier to hate someone after they’re dehumanized by the authority.

Shit roles down hill, doesn’t it?