Eric Bull, over at Wal-Mart Watch just informed me that this weekend he learned Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s CEO, signed an anti-gay adoption petition in Arkansas. This petition placed a question on the ballot that asked if unmarried couples should be allowed to adopt (or provide foster care for) children under the age of 18. The bill passed with 57% of respondents voting yes and 43% voting no.
The Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban is a citizen-initiated state statute that was on the November 4, 2008 ballot in Arkansas. It was approved, making it illegal for any individuals cohabitating outside of a valid marriage to adopt or provide foster care to minors. While the measure was proposed primarily to prohibit same-sex couples from being adoptive or foster parents, this measure also applies to all otherwise qualified couples who are not legally married. [source]
While Arkansas’s anti-gay adoption ban props heterosexual marriages up as the absolute best environment for children, it trips over its own hypocrisy. The bill does not ban anyone who has ever been divorced from adoptiong a child, nor does it ban anyone who adopts a child from getting a divorce. The bill’s main goal was to restrict homosexual couples from adopting children.
I continue to be dumbfounded by the right-wing’s argument that gay couples are somehow a threat to traditional heterosexual marriage, and this is a further extension of that same flawed logic. A committed partnership or couple, regardless of their orientation, should be applauded for wanting to provide a home to a child who is in need of one.
I am saddened, and somewhat sickened by this story. My heart aches for the children who will be denied a loving home, all in the name of homophobia and hatred.
I can’t believe people are ok with leaving children in the foster care system just so they can screw over the homosexuals. There are a lot of really bad heterosexual parents out there. And I’m sure there are a lot of bad heterosexual couples adopting kids in Arkansas. But bad hetero parents are better than good homo parents, eh?
It seems Wal-Mart execs are just as uncultivated as its clientele.
Has this issue with Mike Duke just diappeared? Has anyone in the LGBT media or human right advocates pursued this deplorable action.