This past Tuesday on election day the voters of the state of Arkansas passed an amendment to their state constitution that bars unmarried individuals from adopting children. I'm not sure why orphaned children should be punished this way, but it will be interesting to see how this law is enforced. It will be even more interesting to see how it stands up to legal scrutiny.
Supporters of the amendment were most concerned with the issue of gay parenting. To prevent it, they decided that the path of least resistance would be to bar the unmarried from adopting children in need of a family. While it might be easy to defend this amendment, it raises lots of questions...
Does Arkansas also intend to bar bisexuals from adopting children? What if a woman gets married to a man, has children, then discovers that she wants to be with a woman? Are she and her new partner considered to be unsuitable as adoptive parents just because the state doesn't allow gay marriage?
This law might appease some people for a while, but if these same people showed any curiosity in the human condition in general, and human sexuality specifically, then this amendment would seem completely ridiculous. And who suffers from this ridiculous act? Children, the very individuals the supporters of this amendment claim to be protecting.
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