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Arkansas blocks adoption by unmarried couples

Strong opposition to the candidacy of Barack Obama in Arkansas may have helped conservatives pass a measure blocking the adoption of children by unmarried couples. The measure, which voters overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday and which prevents unmarried cohabitating couples from adopting or fostering children, won strong support from conservatives, exit polls found. The ban affects all unmarried couples but was written with the intent of preventing gay couples from raising children in Arkansas.

Unlike most states, Arkansas shifted to the right politically in this election. John McCain won the state by 20 points compared with President Bush’s 9-point victory in 2004. “I think white Arkansas Democrats felt cross-pressured in this race,” said Jay Barth, a political science professor at Hendrix College.

“They didn’t want to vote for what they viewed as Bush’s third term, but they also couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Barack Obama. One response was just to bow out of voting, and their absence probably helped this proposal succeed.”

Many experts did not expect the measure to pass with Democrats nationwide flooding the polls to support Mr. Obama for President. Prominent politicians, including former President Bill Clinton and Governor Mike Beebe, a Democrat, publicly opposed the ban. Critics ran television advertisements of foster children pleading with voters not to make it harder for them to find families.

But conservatives mounted a grass-roots campaign, mainly through church groups, that framed the state’s case-by-case approach to adoption requests as an affront to traditional family values. “We believe that the best place for a child to grow up is in a stable home with a married mother and father,” said Jerry Cox, president of Family Council Action Committee, which obtained 95,000 signatures to place the proposal on state ballots. “But we also believe in blunting a gay agenda that we see at work in other states with regard to marriage and adoption issues.”

Arkansas is not the first state with such a policy. Florida prohibits adoption by applicants who identify themselves as gay, Utah prevents unmarried cohabitated couples from adopting and Mississippi specifically bans same-sex couples from adopting. — New York Times News Service

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