Adoption Bill To Die In Utah...

Legislative Bill HB318, which would allow same sex couples to adopt in Utah, may never get to see the light of the legislature floor. Rep. Mark Walker (R-Sandy), believes that if you are successful, in a meaningful relationship, and gay, you should not be allowed to foster or adopt children. "It really just comes down to my belief that gay couples shouldn't be able to adopt children," Walker said. "It's probably 180 degrees from my philosophical beliefs." (Desert Morning News) Now according to the Intermountain Catholic News, there are more than 2,600 kids in foster care. Most are of Hispanic/Latino descent. Every year around 20,000 kids "age out" of the foster care system. This means that they turn 19 and are considered adults.

So with just 8 days left in the legislative session, people like Mark Walker have successfully managed to keep kids that may have been abused, neglected or coming from a separated home and need love, out of loving, caring families because of his beliefs. Now let me clear one thing up. From what I can tell, if you are a "single" gay person then you are fine to foster and adopt, but if you are in that caring loving relationship then you are evil and the legislature doesn't want to send that message to these homeless kids. Why would we want them to see that there are people that care for each other.

Now this plays a bigger part as well when we look at the a situation that happened in 2007 to one family. When I say one family, I mean just that. A women was having problems with a drug related criminal matter so she asked her uncle to take her 4 kids. The kids are aged 11, 6, 2-years, and 10 months old and since the father couldn't take them, she looked to family. This seems like the perfect solution, but there was one problem. He is gay and in a meaningful relationship and has been for more than 5 years. Neither of the couple has any prior criminal record, but the state doesn't like that that they are in a committed relationship (and not married - which is not allowed either).

According to Utah's laws, "to adopt or be a foster parent, you must be legally married - or single - and not cohabiting. It doesn't license foster couples who aren't legally married. In other words, gay Uncle Valdez could foster or adopt if he wasn't in a steady, thriving relationship. (Only) If he was 'single'." (via Pride Parenting) The kids were taken by the court when officials asked the court to remove them. Thank god there was a sensible judge who didn't see any reason that they couldn't stay where they were.

But that still doesn't take care of the bill that will die on the floor of the legislature. In the same article, "Another bill in the House would have extended workplace discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. That bill was sent to interim study after a committee hearing in which some testimony raised concerns about extending rights to gays and lesbians. That bill would have added protections against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."

This all makes me sick. So how equal do we feel? I try to tell my family that we live where we live because of all this bullshit in other states. I also remind them that if we lived in Michigan, Florida, Mississippi, or many more, we would not have Mikayla in our family. Now is that OK - NO!