Rep. Chisum Contradicts Himself on Gay Foster Families
Targeting Gay and Lesbian Families Plays Politics with Children’s Lives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2007
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller responded today to a report that state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, will support legislative efforts to confer second-class status on qualified gay and lesbian families seeking to care for foster children. That support would contradict statements Rep. Chisum made less than two years ago.
Miller:
“Rep. Chisum should focus on passing a good state budget, not supporting hot-buttons issues that lawmakers use to divide Texans for political gain. The last thing Texas needs is politicians making it harder for child welfare experts to find safe, loving homes for foster children.”
The Austin American-Statesman reported on Thursday that Rep. Chisum, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, will support efforts to give heterosexuals preferred status as foster parents over gay families. Yet numerous studies have shown there is little or no difference between children raised by gay and lesbian families and children raised by heterosexual families. Major professional, community and family organizations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the American Psychological Association have declared that a parent’s sexual orientation is irrelevant to his or her ability to raise a child.
Moreover, after Rep. Chisum won approval for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions in 2005, he said he would not consider foster care regulations regarding gay and lesbian families: “I’m not about to go out and beat up on the homosexual community. Some of them do a fabulous job of stepping in (as foster parents) when no one else will.” (Austin American-Statesman, November 9, 2005)
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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of religious and community leaders who advance a mainstream agenda supporting public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.
