Rep. Chisum and his party of Bigots has started in on the GLBT Community again. This time Chisum goes against his own promise to Texas to leave Gay Adoption and Gay Foster Parenting alone. Chisum is a snake and a BIGOT!!! We have to take action to stop these hate filed liars from destroying families and possibly sending over 10,000 children back to bad homes or institutions.
cross posted at Booman Tribune, My Left Wing, Daily Kos, Texas Kaos,Burnt Orange Report, refinish69
I received this email yesterday and am totally furious!!!!
Chisum Fires First Shot of Session at Gay & Lesbian Parents
Newly-elevated House Leader Ignores Thirty Years of Parenting Research
As Equality Texas anticipated, the assault on gay and lesbian parents in Texas has begun – again.
Buried deep within a Thursday, February 8th Austin American-Statesman article on his goals as the new chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, State Representative Warren Chisum (R – Pampa) laid the groundwork for creating a “preference system” for foster care placement.
Chisum stated he “favors tweaking state law to give heterosexuals preferred status as foster parents over gay parents.”
Chisum is directly contradicting his own statements, made after the Proposition 2 Marriage Amendment passed, that he would no longer attack gay families. He is placing our state’s most vulnerable children at risk to the radical right’s continuing crusade against gay and lesbian parents.
Chisum is on record, in a piece by W. Gardner Selby in the Austin American-Statesman on November 9, 2005, as having stated: “I’m not about to go out and beat up on the homosexual community. Some of them do a fabulous job of stepping in (as foster parents) when no one else will.”
How can Chisum say in one breath that gay and lesbian people do a “fabulous” job of foster parenting, while in a second, assert they should only be allowed to do so if no one “better” is available?
Equality Texas representatives met with Rep. Chisum Friday afternoon to discuss his comments. Rep. Chisum has his own personal views on what a family should look like. He believes that a foster child’s welfare is better served by placement with a married husband and wife over any other parental structure. While we respect Rep. Chisum’s opinion, decades of empirical research show that it is factually inaccurate.
CHISUM IS JUST PLAIN WRONG
Thirty years of credible, peer-reviewed research shows that children raised by gay and lesbian parents are just as happy, just as secure, and just as well-adjusted as those raised by heterosexual couples. To imply that a person’s sexual orientation has any bearing on their ability to parent is groundless and patently wrong. What counts in parenting is the ability to nurture a child, which is to provide a safe, financially and emotionally stable environment that supports their growth and development.
Austin attorney and Atticus Circle founder, Anne S. Wynne, who debated Chisum several times during the constitutional amendment campaign in 2005, said, “I was surprised to read that Rep. Chisum thought we should give preferred status to heterosexual couples over gay couples as foster parents. The last time we visited about this he told me he thought gay parents did a “wonderful” job as foster parents. I suggest we give preferred status to “wonderful” parents, period. That is what’s in the best interest of the child,” she added.
If Chisum’s true concern was for the well-being of Texas’ children, he would not damage their lives by `tweaking’ an already overburdened foster care system to potentially discourage the applications of capable, loving parents. Any legislation put forth that limits parenting based on sexual orientation is simply a sign of a deeply misguided and bigoted bias on several levels.
There are many thing you can do to help in this situation but one of the best is to attend Lobby Day that Equality Texas is having for the GLBT Community and our Straight But Not Narrow Minded Allies.
We must not allow our state’s most vulnerable children to be placed at risk to the radical right’s continuing crusade against gay & lesbian parents.
Take a vacation day.
Take a sick day.
But, take one day to come to
Lobby Day.
We need thousands, not hundreds, of people at the Capitol on March 5th.
Make sure your state representative knows about your family, your friends’ families, your neighbors’ and coworkers’ families – about every family where children are being raised by capable, loving lesbian & gay parents.
Please come to
Lobby Day.
It is critically important.
For information, please click here
