Retrograde Florida

Catherine Driscoll catherine.driscoll at adelaide.edu.au
Sun May 2 17:35:50 PDT 1999


Michael Hoover wrote:


> any listers know if Clinton used gubernatorial powers - (i.e., executive
> order - during his tenure as Arkansas governor to rescind above rules?
> (while I doubt it, I guess it is possible a successor re-established
> them)...any listers have info on states that continue to set-up obstacles
> irrespective of the formal legal circumstances or states that cooperate
> and, perhaps, even facilitate the process? Michael Hoover

Well I can't speak about American states, but the recourse to 'setting up obstacles irrespective of formal legal cicrumstances' is hardly necessary. In the long haul of trying to adopt there are so many opportunities to measure potential families against a norm that there do not need to be any new obstacles in order to effectively exclude gays and lesbians from adoption. Which is not to say none ever get through, but it's rare and often filtered through a publicly admissable desperation 'who else would take this particular baby'. Income and class differences are crucial in the process of proving 'homosexuality' is not an insurmountable problem.

Of course, also, this is not a 'gays and lesbians' issue, really (as so many things so labelled are not) -- the question of adoption is in general very different for gay men than for lesbians.

Catherine



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