Gay rights groups protest adoption bill

FRANKFORT – Anthony and Richard Harland-Bennett have been together for 23 years.
Seven years ago, they adopted Amber, a baby girl whose biological parents could not take care of her.

But in order to legally adopt Amber, the couple had to move from Florida to Wisconsin, where it was legal for two men to adopt a child. They moved back home to Kentucky several years ago but are worried that a bill filed in the state Senate could make their family illegal.

“We worried that we will have to leave again,” Richard Harland-Bennett said. “Anthony and I were both raised here in Kentucky and I would hope that we would be welcome here.”

The Harland-Bennetts were featured speakers at a rally Wednesday at the Capitol to protest S.B. 68, a bill that would prohibit unmarried couples who live together from being foster or adoptive parents. About 100 people attended the rally , where many called the legislation a “hate bill” masquerading as a bill that would protect children.

Sen. Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville, the sponsor of the bill, dismissed charges Wednesday that the bill was discriminatory and said that numerous studies show that children raised in stable, two-parent, married homes do better than those that do not. The Family Foundation, a nonprofit, has also publicly backed the bill, saying it was a measure that protected children from potentially unstable homes.

The debate between the two groups escalated Wednesday, each accusing the other of using the estimated 7,000 children in foster care as tools to push their respective agendas.

Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, at the rally on Wednesday, said the bill, if passed, could cost the state as much as $5.3 million. Using data supplied by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, a University of California School of Law study showed that 630 foster children would be removed from their current placements during the first year the ban is in effect and 85 children would not be adopted or remain in foster care because their prospective adoptive parents were not legally married. (The Cabinet for Health and Family Services could not provide the same information on Wednesday to back up the UCLA statistics).

Kentucky is in dire fiscal straights. It can’t afford to lose any money, Stein said. But more importantly, people should be opposed to the bill because it’s discriminatory, Stein said. “We can’t afford to let those children be pawns of those who want to use homophobia yet again to scare the citizens to pass this kind of bill,” Stein said.

Anthony Harland-Bennett told the group that his family has been subjected to bigotry and hate just because they decided to raise a child.
“It is the hate that should be banned, not our family,” Harland-Bennett said.

But in a written statement, Martin Cothran, of the Family Foundation, shot back that it was the Fairness Alliance and other gay-rights groups that were using children to push their own agendas.

“Unfortunately, however, there are people so fixated on their own political agendas that, when it comes to the placement of children, safety takes a back seat,” Cothran said.

Tapp also said Wednesday that he doubts that the bill would cost the state that much. Tapp said he would grandfather existing foster homes with unwed parents which means that the state would not have to remove children from those homes, which is part of the estimated $5.3 million costs.

But it’s not clear if the bill will even pass the legislature this year. The bill has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee headed by Sen. Robert Stivers, R-Manchester. Stivers said Wednesday he has not yet decided whether the bill will get a hearing. If the bill makes it out of the Senate, it’s unclear if it would make it through a House committee and the full House before the General Assembly adjourns in the next three weeks.

– Beth Musgrave