This morning’s Austin American Statesman has an article that introduces us to a family that would be destroyed by Rep. Robert Talton’s, [R (of course)-Pasadena] hateful amendment to the Child Protective Services bill (brought to the attention of BooTrib folks by tom 47 yesterday).
Gay foster parents decry proposed ban
Eva Thibaudeau, back from left, Christina Rodriguez and Rep. Garnet Coleman expressed their opposition Wednesday to a proposed ban on gays in foster care. Thibaudeau and Rodriguez brought their children with them, front from left, Isaiah, 10; Quincy, 2; Saleem, 9, and Maya, 2.
Rep. Coleman, of course, is a Democrat.
“There is such deeply entrenched homophobia and hatred, and that’s what this is about,” said Eva Thibaudeau of Houston who, with her partner, Christina Rodriguez, has been providing foster care for eight years. “It’s not about the best interest of children.”
Of course it’s not about the best interest of children. It’s about pandering to the Republican “base.”
The Statesman editorial board weighs in as well:
There is no objective reason to prohibit gays from being foster parents, and none was offered in the Legislature. There are no studies suggesting that homosexuals are any worse than heterosexuals at caring for children; it’s just a bias, plain and simple. . . .
It is shocking that 81 House members supported Talton’s ridiculous amendment. It would be a show of integrity to have that amendment stripped from an already difficult bill when it goes to conference.
OK, Texan BooPeople, start making those calls and writing those letters. The Democrats in the lege are standing up and speaking out. The Statesman has put faces on the real parents and real children who would be hurt by this. Most Texans, no matter where they are on the political spectrum, know that this amendment is wrong, plain and simple. As Kerry said when he was in Austin last week – hold your representatives accountable. Let them know there will be a political cost when they vote for legislation that hurts the people they work for.
The bill has to go to conference now, so contact both your state senator and representative. Find out who they are and their contact info here.
(Free registration required for AAS links.)
Good work Janet! I think it extremely important to hold our representatives responsible when they engage in hateful, ridiculous actions that only pander to the baser segments of our society. They think the rest of us will just shrug it off. Let’s not shrug it off.
Yes. I think state legislators are much more impressed by constituent mail than federal ones.
Let em know you’re watching what they do, and you’re an opinion leader.
My letter to my Senator:
Senator –
I am writing to you to express my outrage at the Texas House passage of the bill to keep gay and lesbian Texans from being able to adopt or care for foster children.
This is an absurd, hate-fueled bill that makes me sick to my stomach. When so many children in Texas aren’t taken care of, don’t have homes or anyone who wants them… shouldn’t the best people for the job be considered, no matter what their sexual preference? Why does the House seem to think that homosexuals are incapable of raising children?
As a resident of this state, I see this as deplorable. Every child deserves a good home – EVERY child, and those children don’t care who their parents are. We shouldn’t either, because frankly, it’s none of our business.
Please fight this, on behalf of your constituents. Give every child in Texas who needs a home a fair shot at getting one.
Thank you for your time.
today (Fri.) and gave his assistant a piece of my mind. Turns out we’re nearly neghbors. I think she at least listened. She said Tony (Goolsby, state dist 102) would call me back. I hope to have the opportunity to give him my opinion in person, if not on the phone.
Here’s a thought — do any foster parents have to give back any federal tax breaks they may have taken for fostser/adoptive parents? Isn’t there some very basic equal protection issue at stake here? Any lawyers out there? I don’t think this would stand up to a constitutional challenge, and would cost a lot of monety to challenge.
I’m not sure about the federal taxes thing. But it’s obvious that this amendment would cost Texas taxpayers a lot of money. On top of defending the inevitable legal challenges, the amendment calls for investigating foster parents to determine their sexuality. (Agh, gack!) If Goolsby starts in on some nonsense about gays being bad parents for these kids – who by definition have already been abused, neglected, and/or abandoned – ask him, who is going to care for these kids if you take them away from their foster parents? And who is going to pay for these investigators/investigations? And what kind of “conservative” wants the government to be investigating people’s sex lives?
And as a former foster kid who was taken away from a loving foster family and returned to an abusive “real” family, don’t even get me started on the emotional damage this would do to the kids.
This link will take you to a page that shows how all of the reps voted and also has the text of the amendment. Read him the part about the investigating.