Grand Divisions

Tennessee Equality Project seeks to advance and protect the civil rights of our State’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons and their families in each Grand Division.

Monday, January 4, 2010

What the NRCC leaves out of the adoption story

Jeff Woods at Pith notes that the Associated Press chose to ring in the new year by reminding everyone that the NRCC is trying to pin the gay adoption issue on one candidate for Congress.

Woods explains why this is problematic:

Media outlets across the state, of course, picked up the AP report just as it is. No where is there any attempt to explain that, if Tennessee bans gay adoption, untold numbers of unwanted children--including those with disabilities and health problems--will languish in state custody and foster homes for years on end.

Here's an additional problem. There was no vote on adoption issue. You can't pin it on anyone other than the Senate sponsor, former Senator Paul Stanley. Neither party moved the bill. The NRCC isn't asking why the bill didn't move. The Senate majority leader didn't seem to push for it, nor did the Senate Judiciary Committee chair. What about the Caucus chair? Nothing. The reasons probably vary from individual to individual. But I suspect the price tag of the bill has something to do with it. It carries a hefty fiscal note. So to try to pin a position on one legislator is to ignore the more important context of the issue. The NRCC's own party hasn't chosen to advance the bill.



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