TX House bans gay foster parents

[Mavdog]

...and in a related amendment, the House also bans left handed drivers from operating motor vehicles, and blonde women from attending any state funded universities.
ridiculous.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
House OKs CPS bill, bans gay foster care
GOP lawmaker tacks on measure late; joint talks with Senate ahead


10:39 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 19, 2005

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News


AUSTIN – The Texas House approved a sweeping overhaul of protective services for children and adults Tuesday, including a last-minute amendment that would ban gays, lesbians and bisexuals from serving as foster parents.

The amendment, tacked on by Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, was deemed "unworkable" by Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, sponsor of the overall House bill. But Ms. Hupp voted with the majority as the amendment was approved, 81-58.

Later, the amended overhaul of protective services passed, 126-16, setting up a battle with the Senate over how much of the system should be turned over to charities and for-profit businesses.

The House supports sweeping privatization; the Senate has passed a more moderate approach. They're expected to negotiate their differences in conference committee, where Mr. Talton's measure could get scrapped.

Ms. Hupp said though "I agree with the philosophy" of the Talton amendment, it is one of the main reasons that the Senate probably won't accept the House version, forcing a conference committee to be named. She said she's not sure what conferees would do with the provision.

Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, a co-author of the bill who is likely to be named to the conference committee, said he's not sure if the gay foster ban would survive.

"I would hope the Senate will have a little more sense ... and be a little bit more sensitive," he said.

The ban on gay foster parents, which Mr. Talton had previously failed to push past House committees, came late and unexpectedly.

Mr. Talton convinced his colleagues that all current and prospective foster parents be required to declare their sexuality. Those who declare themselves – or are later found to be – gay, lesbian or bisexual would be disqualified.

"It is learned behavior," Mr. Talton said of homosexuality.

House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said he had no choice but to allow a vote on Mr. Talton's amendment.

"We looked and it ... and ruled it was germane" to the bill, he said. "That's just the way the process works."

The amendment brought swift objection from Kathy Miller, president of the progressive Texas Freedom Network.

"The House today put personal and political biases ahead of the interests of children who have been abused and neglected," Ms. Miller said, adding that the measure would "further strain a foster system that is already overburdened, forcing more children into institutions rather than safe, loving homes."

"Texas children who most need the state's protection have been cast aside in favor of a narrow, mean-spirited agenda."

Arkansas is the only state to have attempted to ban gay foster parents. The state imposed its prohibition in 1999 as a regulation, but it was struck down by a state judge last December.

Several states, including Florida, Utah and Mississippi, restrict gay adoptions in various ways.

Before Mr. Talton's amendment, privatization was expected to be the biggest talker in Ms. Hupp's protective services bill.

Ms. Hupp said Child Protective Services and its sister agency, Adult Protective Services, are failing in their missions. Investigations by the state and media organizations, including The Dallas Morning News , have supported her view.

"The system is broken and we together must fix it," she said.

Ms. Hupp said "the Senate's plan did not go far enough" in outsourcing CPS' foster care duties to private firms but promised: "The House will go far enough."

Neither chamber would bring Texas' spending at CPS and APS up to par by outside standards, though current high caseloads would shrink by about 40 percent by 2007.

Gov. Rick Perry declared overhaul of the two divisions an emergency topic this session after repeated reports that overworked, poorly trained workers failed to remove children from abusive families and the frail elderly from squalid, vermin-infested homes.

Like the Senate version passed March 3, the House bill would require closer coordination between CPS and law enforcement, better training at both agencies and an updated questionnaire to determine whether elderly Texans are competent to live independently. Malicious false reports of child abuse would bring felony punishment of up to two years in jail.

But the two chambers part ways over case management, in which a state CPS worker now manages therapies, works with a child's family and helps with a court case.

The Senate would create a pilot program in one region to test privately-run case management. The House specifies a timetable for complete statewide privatization over six years.

Also, under the House bill, private businesses could be hired to be the "independent administrator" for various regions of the state, deciding placements and managing other private service providers.