Jennifer Chrisler, director of the Family Pride Coalition, says that despite Ohio being the only state to introduce a bill to ban gay adoption this year, national and local groups are working together to defeat similar potential measures elsewhere.
Vermont and Iowa: Bills introduced to allow same-sex couples to marry.
California: Assembly passed measure that limits a defendant’s ability to use the "gay panic" and "trans panic" defenses.
Colorado: Two bills pending in the state legislature would grant some rights to same-sex couples. Sen. Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield) would allow "reciprocal beneficiary agreements," where any two parties excluded from marrying under Colorado law could gain specific rights "including but not limited to health care insurance benefits." A separate referendum proposed by Rep. Tom Plant (D-Nederland) specifically addresses rights for same-sex couples, including the adoption of a partner’s child and other "benefits, protections and responsibilities under the law as are granted to married spouses." Plant’s referendum could land on the Nov. 7 ballot.
Florida: Legislators introduced a bill that would replace the ban on "homosexuals" adopting children with a judicial determination of whether the "homosexual" can provide a good environment for the child.
Hawaii: House Judiciary Committee passed bill adding sexual orientation and gender identity to law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations.
New Jersey: Legislature passed and governor signed three pieces of legislation expanding rights of registered domestic partners, adding the right to make funeral arrangements, the right of local entities to provide health benefits to employee’s domestic partners and the right of a domestic partner to be appointed a guardian for an incapacitated partner.
New York: Assembly passed two bills — one that prohibits discrimination in insurance based on sexual orientation and one that requires insurers to write policies that include provisions for domestic partners; they are now pending in the state Senate. Governor signed a separate bill allowing domestic partners to control each other’s remains. Also, Assembly passed bill that would allow an employee to use their leave time to care for an immediate family member, including a domestic partner.
Utah: Hate crimes bill including sexual orientation passed the House Judiciary Committee.
Virginia: A measure to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in state employment failed in a state Senate committee.
Washington: Governor signed bill prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Anti-gay measures
Utah: Bill introduced that would prohibit an individual who is not a biological parent from being able to petition for custody of visitation of a child passed in the House Judiciary Committee. This bill is in response to a pending state Supreme Court case between a same-sex couple and issues of custody and visitation of their children.
Virginia: A bill that would have barred anyone other than a married couple or an unmarried individual from being listed on a child’s birth certificate was killed in a House committee. A House committee also killed a bill that would have prohibited unmarried women from accessing assisted reproduction.
Despite fears from gay rights activists that bills to ban gay adoption would be a hot topic in state legislatures this year, only one such ban has actually been introduced — and it appears unlikely to win approval.
Ohio gay families are the first to face what some gay groups claim may be a potential onslaught of state bills to ban gay people from adopting or becoming foster parents, as social conservatives attempt to ride on the coattails of successful anti-gay marriage bans.
Ohio House Bill 515 was introduced Feb. 9 and states a person may not adopt "if the individual is a homosexual, bisexual, or transgender individual; the individual is a stepparent of the child to be adopted and is a homosexual, bisexual, or transgender individual; the individual resides with an individual who the court determines is a homosexual, bisexual, or transgender individual."
Other states that gay rights activists speculate might see similar bills include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
With many state legislative sessions under way, some activists are surprised no other gay adoption bans have been introduced.
"It is interesting only one state has filed a bill to ban gay adoption and, frankly, that’s not where we expected to be," said Jennifer Chrisler, director of the Family Pride Coalition, a national organization that works for gay families.
Chrisler said her group is organizing with local and national groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, to defeat bans on gay adoptions.
"Some people know they can very easily use this as a political wedge issue," Chrisler said. "Texas will have another foster ban in 2007. But polling shows people believe it should be up to social scientists and professionals to determine what is best for the child — perhaps this is why the issue has lost its steam."
While Georgia is on the list of potential states to see legislation to ban gay adoption or foster care, no bill has been introduced and the General Assembly is set to adjourn in about two weeks.
Georgia Equality received a $28,000 grant from the Human Rights Campaign to hire a lobbyist to specifically combat any proposed bill to ban gay adoption or foster care.
"I think they realized the timing was all wrong," said Chuck Bowen, Georgia Equality executive director.
Carrie Evans, HRC state legislative director, said the group also granted money to Mississippi to fight any proposed gay adoption measures.
"We are treating this issue with a level of intensity," Evans said. "I think that the fight state and national gay groups are putting up is forcing the social conservative groups to take a step back."
While Ohio is the first state this year to go after gay adoption, seven states filed measures last year to ban gay adoption and, in some cases, ban gay foster parents.
The 2005 bills in Arkansas, Alabama, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia all failed, but activists said that doesn’t mean gay adoption is no longer a hot topic for social conservatives.
"These people cannot reproduce. … Experimenting on children through gay adoption is a problem," Rev. Russell Johnson, chair of the Ohio Restoration Project, a conservative Christian group, told USA Today in an article published Feb. 20.
The Ohio bill was introduced by Republican Rep. Ron Hood of Ashville, but was immediately derided by GOP House Speaker Jon Husted as "divisive," and it is not expected to pass.
"There’s growing concern within the Republican Party of continuing to introduce this divisive legislation," Scott Borgemenke, Husted’s chief of staff, told the Associated Press. "We don’t think there’s some cottage industry of homosexual adoptions. We do believe people are losing their jobs."
Equality Ohio praised Husted’s comments.
"The swift and strong opposition to this bill from the leadership in Ohio’s General Assembly is a sign that Ohio’s legislators put the needs and interests of Ohio’s children first," Lynne Bowman, the group’s executive director, said in a prepared statement.
Florida is currently the only state to expressly ban adoption by all gay people, although Utah restricts adoption to married couples, effectively banning gays, according to the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project. Mississippi bans adoption by gay couples.
Arkansas and Nebraska do not ban adoption by lesbians and gay men, but do prohibit them from becoming foster parents, according to the ACLU.
This year, voters in six states will decide if they will alter their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage. Legislatures in another 13 states are considering whether to put similar measures on the ballot in future elections, according to HRC’s Evans.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) also is calling for a June 5 vote in the Senate on the Marriage Protection Amendment, which would change the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and woman
Tennessee’s own proposed ban on same-sex marriage is likely to pass, said Chris Sander, spokesperson for the gay Tennessee Equality Project.
But the fact that the bill’s language does not contain limits on domestic partner benefits or civil unions has given TEP a strange ally in opposing the proposed constitutional amendment — the conservative Family Policy Network.
"The problem with the Tennessee bill is that it doesn’t go far enough," Tennessee FPN spokesperson Ron Shank said. "All it does is protect the word ‘marriage’ — not the institution of marriage. We obviously oppose the proposed amendment for different reasons — they [gay activists] say it’s too strong, we say it won’t do the job it was set out to do."
A debate over domestic partnership benefits in Colorado also put a conservative group in an unlikely situation.
The conservative Focus on the Family is backing a bill by state Sen. Shawn (R-Broomfield) that would extend "reciprocal benefits" to any two people who cannot get married under state law.
Mitchell’s bill is a response to a domestic partnership referendum proposed by Rep. Tom Plant (D-Nederland), which specifically addresses same-sex couples and their rights, including the adoption of a partner’s child and other "benefits, protections and responsibilities under the law as are granted to married spouses."
Joe Glover, national spokesperson for the Family Policy Network, said Focus on the Family’s leader James Dobson is "dead wrong" by supporting Mitchell’s bill.
"While the bill says nothing about granting benefits to homosexual partners, I’ve yet to see a group of elderly sisters clamoring for support of this bill, which Mr. Dobson said this kind of bill would benefit — that’s just comical," Glover said.
Gay-related legislation pending around U.S. State legislatures are in session and lawmakers are considering an array of measures, from pro-gay marriage bills to bans on adoption by gay men and lesbians.
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