We all know the failures of our foster care system. Well, it seems, that gays and bisexuals are one of the root causes of that failure, at least according to Texas Republicans. From AP:
The state House tentatively approved legislation that would prohibit homosexuals and bisexuals from becoming foster parents.Not that gays and lesbians alone are to blame, it's also the government's fault, and if only we let private contractors handle our foster care system like they handle the prison system, everything will be okay:
Legislators voted 81-58 Tuesday to approve the ban in an amendment tacked on to a bill that would revamp the state's Child Protective Services agency. The full bill was tentatively approved 126-16. Final approval was expected Wednesday.
"It is our responsibility to make sure that we protect our most vulnerable children and I don't think we are doing that if we allow a foster parent that is homosexual or bisexual," said Rep. Robert Talton, a Republican, who introduced the amendment.
The bill also would spin off some of Child Protective Services' duties to the private sector, including foster care and case management. Private agencies already manage 75 percent of foster homes in Texas, and the state handles the rest. The bill would turn all of those functions over to private agencies.I wonder where the data is that says that of the nearly 20% of children in foster care who were abused or neglected, gays and bisexuals were such a huge portion of the problem. But hey, Republicans rarely if ever let the facts get in the way of a good gay bashing.
It seems that Rep. Talton has been at this for a while. From an Austin Chronicle article from 2003, Talton has said that homosexuality is "just like pedophilia is a learned behavior" and that rather than the horror of children growing up with two loving parents who happen to be gay or bisexual, "quite frankly, if it was me I would rather [leave] kids in orphanages. ... At least they have a chance of learning the proper values, and if that's not important, than I don't know what is."Proper values taught to kids by a Foster Care Corporation LLC. Yeah, that's got to be a lot better than letting the homos raise kids.
