Burnt Orange Report

Gay Foster Parent Ban Passes State House

By Byron LaMasters

Because of Rep. Robert Talton (R-Pasadena)'s amendment to the Child Protective Services reform bill, your tax dollars will be spend on witch hunts seeking to learn the sexual orientation of potential foster parents (should the amendment pass the senate). The Austin American Statesman reports:

House lawmakers on Tuesday voted to prohibit gay or bisexual people from becoming foster parents as part of the chamber's overhaul of child and adult protective services.

The amendment was rolled into the bill approved by the House of Representatives that, as expected, would also lower caseloads for investigators and hand over to private agencies some of the duties associated with protecting Texas children. [...]

Talton's amendment would require the Department of Family and Protective Services to ask potential foster parents if they are homosexual or bisexual and to refrain from placing children with those parents. Currently, the agency does not ask that question.

The department also would be required to remove a child from a foster home if it determines that the parents are homosexual or bisexual.

"It's a learned behavior, and I think a child . . . ought to have the opportunity to be presented to a traditional family as such," Talton said. "And if they choose to be homosexual or lesbian, then that's their choice when they turn 18."

Talton said he tacked the amendment onto the CPS reform bill because he knew he wouldn't get a hearing for it if he filed his own legislation. The amendment passed 81-58, mostly along party lines. Talton had tried unsuccessfully in the past to pass such legislation.

Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a government watchdog group that bills itself as an alternative to the religious right, said in a statement that the House put personal and political biases ahead of children's interests.

"Representative Talton's amendment to ban gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from acting as foster parents will further strain a foster system that is already overburdened, forcing more children into institutions rather than safe, loving homes," she said. "Texas children who most need the state's protection have been cast aside in favor of a narrow, mean-spirited agenda."

More at the Pink Dome. Also, read the statement from the LGRL. Also blogged at Appalachia Alumni Association and 100 Monkeys Typing. Anyone that doubts that this is anything but a witch-hunt that would spend millions of state funds to determine the sexual orientation of potential foster parents need not read any further than the text of the amendment (PDF File):

Section 264.1064c. "Notwithstanding the applicant's or foster parent's statement that the applicant or foster parent is not a homosexual or bisexual, if the department determines after a reasonable investigation that the applicant or foster parent is homosexual or bisexual the department may not: (1) allow the applicant to serve as a foster parent; (2) place the child with the foster parent; or (3) allow the child to remain in foster care with the foster parent."

What the heck is a reasonable investigation?? Talk about screwed up priorities... we have a foster care crisis in this state, and Republicans would rather spend millions of dollars to take kids out of loving homes, and investigate the personal lives of law-abiding adults.