We did it!

(Same text as found on the Wordpress blog but in case you missed it...)

We did it!, well the voters did it. Now that the commish of DHS is completely removed all of the obstacles that stood in our way in opening up the process for more adoptive families to begin the process are completely gone! Good work voters and good work OKLO Adopt!

In the new format "Bio-Moms" will be held accountable for the slowing of the processes of the kids taken from them. No more last minute treatment facility check ins and check outs, and no more false legal actions!

A great day and a terrific step. Next is the actual formation of the new initiative to protect our sons and daughters from these "winners"

It's exciting times when reason and democracy meet

Busy month. no bloggy bloggy

Nothing to post on this front as its National Adoption month and the team is working at the outlier events. I am excitedly awaiting the meeting with the Legislator though.

FAQ (as requested by Tom LOL)

Tom has made a better argument than I could against the idea so...Touche' Tom...here's the damn FAQ

1. Why do you link to the FARTHER.than.FATHER presence on Blogger?
The Blogger presence is allows me to engage the "bio-moms" in a situation that they feel comfortable in.  They feel they outnumber their opposition and so make no holds barred attacks. This is useful to the Cafe press discussion.

2. Should I follow the Blogger version of Farther.than.Father to stay updated?
No. The blogger account for FtF is to acquire the base subject "opposition" matter for the Cafe press FtF. Tom, Jess, Anita and myself are always on the CP FtF blog so stay there for events, updates and other stuff.

3. Do you discuss the agenda on the Blogger presence of FtF? 
No. This is an engagement blog not a coercion or informative blog. The ladies on the Blogger FtF are generally Bio-moms who have sobered up enough to realize how bad they messed up and are dealing with tremendous amounts of self loathing and anger. These are the equivalent to the the "bio-moms" that show up at our events....angry, few and wrong.

4. What if I have more questions that might make a good FAQ?
Email me via the Cafe press blog and I'll try to put them up here. Tom will more than likely ride my ass about it until I do LOL

        

November is National Adoption month!

National Adoption month is coming up. A few weeks ago we had an “open campus” information day and the few of us adoptive parents did an information booth. I wrote about this earlier and to sum it up we received a lot of questions about the adoption process. I think we all were a little surprised as to the shear amount of attention our little booth received. Pleasantly surprised.

Given this interest we are gearing up with a poster campaign at the University to make aware to the graduates and student body that they can and should enter into the information meeting held on the 26^th. One of our group made the statement that the college kid today is much more like a college graduate ten or fifteen years ago. What better of a group of possible adoptive parents than college students? Educated, upwardly mobile, and willing to work. That’s all that’s required from any individual to begin the process of adoption.

With traditional marriages not holding the importance as they once did, I think these college kids are the new face of the adoption future. The vast majority of adoptions take place within one parent households currently and I think to think this will change anytime soon is incorrect.  I think if we can get more interest in adoption from college graduates, the 700,000 available kids will have a better shot at finding a family that will be there for them. As we change the definition of what a family is, we must also change the definition of what an adoptive family looks like.

To the opposition

I know. It's uncomfortable to find out that outside the echo-chamber, the world does not support you. I get it.

The reason for returning is that I am amazed by the depths of the psychosis I find here. The "bio-moms" that show up at adoption events that I attend (before being arrested and carted off) is where my interest began and now I know where they breed and foster the self-entitled lies.

I would say one thing; the damage you’re doing to these women is disgusting. You tell them that they have a legal alternative to the reality of what they have done. With your encouragement, they spend years and thousands of dollars attempting to change the realities of the situation to no avail. The next step for them is to attack the individual DHS or adoption entity only to be arrested and in a few local cases, have their other children taken away. Now discouraged and desperate, they return to the blogs only to be told..."keep up the fight" and they fade away into depression and worse.

Ultimately this isn’t a fight within blogs I and I think you yourself could care less about personal attacks, we are all big boys and girls and this is a battle between pro-adoption and anti-adoption. Will there be more adoption of children? Or will there be less. Thankfully, world adoption rates are on the increase.

In purpose, I don’t benefit from having you write about me or write posts concerned about myself. I cannot learn about your ideology or talking points if you’re concentrated on "telling me off". So not unlike a wild boar studied for research, I in effect am releasing you back into the wild of echo chamber rationalists and historical revisionism. I promise to view from afar and let you return to your work without interfere.

Thank you for your service.

Gay adoption

National acceptance of adoption is growing and it has to grow with the LGBT community. Stable gay moms, Stable gay dads its what we need.

 

Gay Adoption

Find gay adoption statistics and learn the factors involved with gay couples adopting in each state.

1. Gay Adoption: America
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the number of children living with same-sex parents has doubled since 2000. How much of that is from adoption is not clear, but the emergence of a younger generation of gay-friendly biological parents emerges has increased that amount. Homophobia raised past controversy does not affect them. These progressive birth parents consider domestic stability, relationship quality and financial security.
However, if you are gay and wish to adopt, whether you are single or a couple matters most. Ironically, the same people who argue that children need two-parent homes do not extend that to gay parents. Even so, the number of states allowing gay couples to adopt has nearly tripled in six years. Utah and Mississippi alone still outlaw gay adoption, since Florida’s restriction was found unconstitutional. Every other state in America allows single gay and lesbian adults to adopt.
The real controversy over gay adoption in America arises over gay couples and the legal landscape still shifts continually – mostly in favor of gay adoption. Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow gay or lesbian stepparents to adopt their partners’ children. Except for Pennsylvania, those states also allow any other same-sex couples to adopt, as do Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. North Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and New Hampshire specifically prohibit it. In other states judges decide on a case-by-case basis, so in those states you may have to incur the express of the process before you know if you can adopt or not.

Sources

Florida Domestic Partnership Law Blog (2012)
Gay-Adoption.us (2006)

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2. Issues In Deciding the Adoption Question

Definitive studies are needed that would follow larger numbers of children over a long period of time. This would establish reliable information on gay parenting and the effects (if any) on children.

Currently, research studies are contradictory and can be influenced by the individuals or organizations that finance the study. Studies linked with conservative groups and religion often show negative effects on children from gay households. Studies that support gay parenting are often accused of being biased, the researchers supporting gay rights.

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3. Factors In Adopting 

Gay and lesbian couples who want to have a family often turn to foster care and adoption as a way to receive children into their home. As of 2010, National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections reports that 4% of adopted children and 3% of foster children in the United States are living with same-sex parents. Yet same-sex couples may still face barriers.
State Laws
Some states laws prohibit gay couples from adopting or fostering children through that state's system, but these laws are increasingly being overturned. For example, Florida began allowing gay couples to adopt in November 2008. Adoption laws about individuals adopting a same-sex partner's child also vary.
Discriminatory Language
Adoption and foster care applications often have language that is not friendly to same-sex couples. For example, forms should say "Parent 1" and "Parent 2" rather than the gender-specific terms of mother and father.
Difficulty Getting Approved
The adoption and foster care process often includes a home visit and evaluation of the parents' abilities to raise children well. Even in states with laws that prohibit discrimination, gay couples still may fail evaluations for inexplicable reasons.

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4. Same Sex Adoption in the United States

One quarter of children living with same-sex couples in the United States have been adopted, according to a research guide from the Georgia State University College of Law. Despite the fact that many same-sex couples have been able to adopt, barriers to adoption still exist in several states. Sexual orientation is not a federally protected class the way that race and ethnicity are.
Some states have recently changed laws regarding same sex adoption. For example, in 2010, Florida overturned a ban that prevented gays and lesbians from adopting children. The Florida Supreme Court ruled the ban unconstitutional and determined that it denied the "best interests of the child," according to CNN.
Same sex adoption proves to be an uphill battle in other states. For example, in Michigan, same sex couples cannot become parents of an adopted child together. Instead, only a single, unmarried person can adopt the child in that state. The state of Mississippi has a similar law, according to Human Rights Campaign. Arizona passed a law in 2011 that did not ban same-sex couples from adopting, but instead gave preference to heterosexual couples in the adoption process, according to the Independent Adoption Center.

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5. Step Parent Rights and Gay Marriage
Children of gay marriage are biologically related to, at most, one of their parents. As more states recognize same-sex marriage, those states' laws have provided more protection for the rights of non-biological parents. Determining parental rights is important, as it can help decide custody issues in the case of a divorce.
Because federal law does not yet recognize gay marriage, rights are determined at the state level and vary greatly. An important victory was achieved in January of this year when Iowa courts decided that the names of both same-sex parents should be included on the birth certificates of children born to a married couple. In other states, the non-biological parent can adopt to become the legal parent of their child.
In states where gay marriage is not legal, the legal rights of non-biological parents are fragile. According to Keen News Service, a judge in North Carolina voided a second-parent adoption in 2010. Similar cases have popped up throughout the country. Without the protection provided by marriage, the rights of thousands of parents are at the mercy of the whims of a judge.

The power of young people to always suprise.

So normally, I'm kind of a Nihilist when it comes to other people or expecting them to do anything beyond watch TV, play the lotto and eat cheeseburgers. I'm a street punk and I live in America so that's understandable. I am also Much older than the average student in our student body. I'm going for my masters, many of them are still doing their B.A. and I just didn't think they would relate to well. So anyway, when I said I'd help run the adoption info desk at my school I didn't expect much or anything from the student body. I mean they are college kids, they would even consider adoption as an option so why waste the time.

I could not believe the number of people who came and just wanted basic questions answered or to tell us that they were adopted or had a family member would was adopted. It was really invigorating to see so many with so much interest. We even received a few referrals for future contact about being a foster parent or adoptive contact by DHS. It was mind blowing. At that age I was nowhere near the idea of even being alive beyond age 25 and yet these 18-22 year old kids wanted to know about becoming resource parents and kinship and full on adoption. Mind blowing.

One strange aspect about today though was the repeated mention of a musical group called The dropkick Murphy's and a song titled: "The state of Massachusetts" I investigated it and its about the process that many of us have seen the kids have to go through. I asked the students if they knew if the band had any adoption history and they didn't know so I cant say if the band works from experience but it sure sounds like it to me.

It just goes to show how the viewpoint of adoption is no longer just for married people or people in their thirties. Educated, driven young people are interested and very open to taking in the lost generation of children out there. Go job young people! I am impressed.