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Every Child Deserves A Family, And Pete Stark Wants To Make That Happen

05/03/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Republicans hate children. It is a simple as that. They want foster children to shop in thrift stores for no good reason, and they want to deny children loving families through adoption. At least we have some politicians such as Representative Pete Stark of California who knows that children need a loving family.

Stark recently introduced the Every Child Deserves a Family Act which is unlikely to get through the House due to the social values of men like Eric Cantor and John Boehner. Stark is, however, finding it tough going to get support out of the White House.

Stark told the Washington Blade:

“I’d like to see the administration support our position more definitively. I’ve had some troubles often determining where the administration is on issues, and I think it’s time that President Obama steps up to the bar and makes this — supports it wholeheartedly.”

According to Shin Inouye, a White House spokesman:

“The president has long believed that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He recognizes that adoptive families come in many forms, and that we must do all we can to break down barriers to ensure that all qualified caregivers have the ability to serve as adoptive families. While we have not reviewed this specific legislation, we share its goals to expand adoption rights and move the dialogue forward on this issue.”

The ECDFA has thirty-three co-sponsors and is intended to restrict federal funds for states that allow discrimination in adoption or foster care placement based upon sexual orientation, marital status or gender identity of the parents or of the LGBT children seeking homes. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is expected to introduce the Senate’s version of the bill.

Last month, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill that forces adoption agencies to give top priority to opposite-sex married couples.

Stark stated about the legislation “What’s in the child’s best interest is what the bill is trying to promote. There is no information that shows that children raised by a single parent or gay or lesbian parent households have any more or less problems than all other children.” This is slightly incorrect. There is a body of evidence that children raised in a single-parent house hold tend to have more problems than those raised in two-parent households, but that it should be noted that children raised in single-parent households do better than children who do not have any permanent parents. Evidence of late has shown that children raised in households of two or more parents do well no matter the gender/sex composition of the parents.

The Washington Blade wrote:

According to Stark’s office, the U.S. government spends more than $7 billion each year on a foster care system against potential single and LGBT parents and allows around 25,000 children age out annually. More than 500,000 children are in foster care and 120,000 of them available for adoption.

Recently, the issue of same-sex couples adopting came up in the Presidential campaign when former Senator Rick Santorum stated that “A lesbian woman walked up to me and said, ‘Why are you denying me my right? I said, ‘Well, because it’s not a right.’ It’s a privilege. It’s a privilege that society recognizes because society sees intrinsic value to that relationship over any other relationship.”

Stark took quite a shot at Santorum stating “Rick who? There was a guy in Congress years ago named Santorum, but I think he left. He lost, but [has been] following that path ever since. I think that’s nonsense.”

Santorum has relied upon the same misused data to try and hold onto some relevance in this campaign. He apparently still believes that it is 2004.