Texas House Bill Bars Gay Foster Parents

I so completely disagree with Baldimo's suggestion that kids need balance more than love.

If fact, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this idea of "balance" at all. Do men and women love their children so differently?

But the hilarious thing about this whole Ward/June conversation is that we're talking about foster care. If life was all Ward and June we wouldn't even have the need for foster care.

Anyone who automatically thinks mom + dad = happy kid should spend a day in my shoes.

Or better yet, they should spend the day in Mo's shoes.

Especially one of those days after his bio-family has decided they had a sudden interest in seeing him after ignoring him for months and months.

Anyyyyywayyyyy....

I did some poking around and found some interesting numbers:

Number of kids in foster care in 1980: 302,000; in 2001: 542,000; in 2005 it is estimated at slightly over 800,000.

The most recent numbers I could find (so far) deal with 2001 so let's take a look at those

542,000 kids in foster care spread out over 173,794 homes.

That is over 3 kids per available home.

I don't know what percentage of the population is gay but let's just say 3%. If that 3% is also reflected in foster care situations and if we eliminate that 3% we get rid over over 5,000 foster homes.

That's a sad, sad deal for those kids.

Each year about 20,000 kids age out of the foster care system. Many of them have no place to go and they end up relying on government assistance just to keep themselves alive where they get to listen to people grumble about how they don't want their tax dollars supporting you lazy vagrants.

People who agree with laws like the one that started this thread suggest that homosexuals are amoral.

I suggest that people who agree with this law are short-sighted hypocrites who wouldn't know a moral if it bit 'em on the ass.

I have one adopted child. I'm not Ward Cleaver or Father of the Year by anys stretch of imagination but at least I'm there and my child knows I love her.

Blue
You are a good guy after all. For that you get one "Atta Boy"

thanks but let's not go overboard.

Interesting study.

Family structure and child outcomes in the United States and Sweden

from page 23 (conclusion)



http://people.ku.edu/~dginther/izadp1259.pdf

and the one exception - number of full and half siblings.

Told ya!(But admit it: you've been searching Medline again. That's doping!)

Me too, and my daughter was for a short while in the foster care system.
Thank God she was too young then to remember her ordeal.

While the foster care system is not always the best, it certainly
is an option for them to live in a better enviornment as where they
came from. The more people are willing to take on a child the
better we're off as society in general - regardless of their sexual
preference or their marital status if any at all.

I don't have a problem with adoption by gay parents, I think making a law against it it really mean spirited as well.

Now, here's the thing. I would think that it would be better for a child to have two moms than to have two dads. What do you think?

na - no medline this time, Thomas - a full out google keyword search

Depends. are these lipstick lesbians or diesel dykes?

Blue
isn't there usually one of each?

What's the difference?

not necessarily

I cannot say why I think that because I don't know.

Mr. Throbber probably refers to Rosie O'Donnell vs. Anne Heche.

Mr. Throbber is just having a laugh. You guys may not think I'm funny but I'm killing myself.

I could loan you a few of my dvd's. Visual aid ya know. :wink:

I don't get turned on by lesbian play, thank you!

On topic: I truly hope, the Texas example will not
set present in any other state, that would be utterly
dreadful for the children in question.

There was a great article in my paper today about one foster parent. The article cited some interesting statistics:

"In March, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services, 2,394 children among the 6,824 in foster care were in need of specialized medical foster care, but only about 350 were getting it...

....To care for these children effectively, DHS officials estimate they need 1,197 medical foster homes statewide. But because only 179 such homes exist, children are being placed in medical homes that are over capacity or homes where foster parents have little or no training to deal with specialized needs."

Read all about it: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/111425027391720.xml&coll=7