Rep. Dwight Kay (112th District) of Edwardsville filed the bill in the state general assembly Jan. 10, making it the fifth bill of its kind to be filed in the last year, according to Equality Illinois Director of Public Policy Randy Hannig, Jr.

“Catholic charities have gone through the courts and the courts have said ‘no,’” said Hannig. “The governor said that there’s no way that any adoption services will discriminate against same-sex couples. You’d think that when all three branches of government disagree with you, you’d give up.”

Currently, under the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Unions act, all benefits afforded to people united in a marriage are also afforded to those who are in a civil union, including the right to adopt. The new law requires that all agencies receiving state funds use one standard for placing children: What is best for the child, according to Hannig.

“What is in the best interest of the child?” he said. “Not their biased criteria.”

The bill is summarized on the Illinois General Assembly website, which states that, “… a child welfare agency that is religiously based or owned by, operated by, or affiliated with a bona fide religious organization may decline an adoption or foster family home application, including any related licensure and placement, from a party to a civil union if acceptance of that application would constitute a violation of the organization’s sincerely held religious beliefs …”

So far, Rep. David Reis (108th District) and Rep. Paul Evans (102nd District) have been added as chief co-sponsors.

Hannig doesn’t see the bill going any further.

“Obviously, this governor won’t sign the bill if it even makes it to his desk,” he said.

A call made to Kay’s office was not immediately returned.

Headlined, “Hey, Cardinal Francis George, Gay is not like the KKK,” the TWO advertisement slams the Cardinal for his comments comparing the LGBT community to the KKK, and "debunks the lies and misinformation disseminated by the Archbishop about the LGBT community," according to a statement by Truth Wins Out (TWO).

The ad comes on the heels of an online petition launched by TWO calling on George to step down -- the petition has garnered more than 5,000 signatures.

“We felt compelled to place this ad after Cardinal George compounded his initial smear with further insults disguised as an apology,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen.

“It seems the sin of pride is keeping George from saying he is sorry for his outrageous and misleading remarks about Gay Pride. At this point, the only road to redemption is his resignation.”

George’s remarks first came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual gay pride parade in June. The event was originally set to begin at 10 a.m., but a priest complained that the starting time would interfere with morning services.

In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”

But instead of backtracking on his comments, George later rationalized his comment his this statement, issued by the Archdiocese:

“When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church.

One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940’s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.”

“This is not a legitimate fight over religious liberty as George wrongly implies, but a vivid example of religious bigotry fueled by a mean-spirited analogy that linked innocent, law abiding families with the KKK,” said Besen. “We will stand up against such lies and speak out when LGBT people are unfairly maligned.”

Last year, TWO launched a 160,000-signature Change.org petition that helped persuade Apple, Inc. to eliminate an “ex-gay” iPhone app by the group Exodus International.

While only one state -- New York -- enacted full marriage rights for same-sex couples, it was the most populous state to do so. Five other states also moved closer to marriage equality than ever before. Public opinion shifted dramatically towards supporting equality. And the Obama administration announced that it no longer considers a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act constitutional.

On the negative side, however, three states failed to pass marriage equality bills that had been introduced in their legislatures, and two states passed bills to put measures on their ballots in 2012 that will seek to ban marriage for same-sex couples under their state constitutions.

Despite the negatives, Evan Wolfson, president of the national Freedom to Marry group, said in an interview that 2011 was “an epic year of real transformation.”

On the federal level, Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to Congress in February, stating that the administration believes Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional and will no longer defend it.

Section 3 of DOMA states that the federal government will not, for any federal purposes, recognize the marriages of same-sex couples.

Holder’s letter said the administration believes laws disfavoring persons based on sexual orientation should have to pass the most stringent judicial review—heightened scrutiny. And it said the administration would argue so in two cases challenging DOMA in the 2nd Circuit.

LGBT legal advocacy group Lambda Legal, in its December “State of the Law 2011” report, called Holder’s letter “game changing.”

Wolfson said it represented “an immense historical shift.”

Another sign of this shift, he said, was the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers. DADT repeal will help fuel the marriage equality effort, Wolfson said, “because Americans are now going to see the women and men serving our country as openly gay members of couples and openly gay members of families.”

On the state level, the biggest win in 2011 was in New York, where the legislature passed a marriage equality bill in June. When Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed the bill, he doubled the percentage of same-sex couples living in states that allow them to marry. New York is also the only state to have passed marriage equality through a Republican-led legislative chamber, its state Senate.

Governor Cuomo, by adding his vocal support to the bill, “put his political capital on the line,” Wolfson said. His success prompted politico.com to call him a “national contender” and leader of the Democratic Party’s progressive base. The Washington Post said his triumph made him “a first among equals when it comes to the jockeying for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.”

“The freedom to marry went from being a perceived and presumed ‘third rail’ that politicians ran from to now being a pathway to political gain,” said Wolfson.

Five other states came closer to marriage equality than ever before. Maryland for the first time passed a marriage equality bill out of a legislative chamber, its Senate, although the measure fell short of winning in the House.

And Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, and Rhode Island each passed civil union legislation.

But there were disappointments.

In Colorado, a civil union bill was killed on a party-line vote in the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, after passing the Democrat-controlled Senate.

And in Rhode Island, the civil union bill disappointed many because a bill for full marriage equality had been on the legislature’s agenda. It was dropped after it failed to gain enough support, despite large Democratic majorities in both chambers and Governor Lincoln Chafee’s (I) promise to sign it.

LGBT groups were also disappointed with a provision in Rhode Island’s civil union bill providing extensive exemptions on religious grounds for those who don’t wish to recognize those unions. Chafee himself said the civil union law “fails to fully achieve” the goal of providing same-sex couples with equal rights.

Two states saw progress in lawsuits that could lead to marriage equality. In New Jersey, marriage equality advocates have sued the state, claiming that the state’s existing civil union laws do not provide them with full equality—an equality the state Supreme Court said, in October 2006, is guaranteed by the state constitution.

In California, a three-judge panel of the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments December 8 on procedural matters related to the case to determine the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples. Regardless of the outcome, the case will almost certainly be appealed to the full 9th Circuit court and/or the U.S. Supreme Court.

Three states successfully played defense in 2011.

Iowa, New Mexico, and Wyoming held firm against attempts to pass bills for ballot measures that sought to ban marriage for same-sex couples under their state constitutions. If passed, Iowa’s bill would have taken away the right to marry that same-sex couples gained in 2009.

But there were some clear setbacks in 2011 as well.

North Carolina and Minnesota passed bills for ballot measures in 2012 that seek to ban marriage for same-sex couples under the state constitutions. And Indiana and Pennsylvania started the process for such ballot measures, which could see further action in 2012.

In Maine, however, LGBT advocates gained enough signatures to place a measure in favor of marriage equality before voters on the 2012 ballot -- although advocates in California and Oregon decided to postpone such attempts and continue to build support.

These ballot measures could be impacted by what was perhaps the most significant win in 2011: a shift in public opinion towards support for marriage equality.

Support for marriage equality nationwide rose about one percent per year between 1996 and 2009, but jumped to a rate of five percent per year in 2010 and 2011, according to a July analysis of over a decade’s worth of polling data by Joel Benenson, President Barack Obama’s lead pollster, and Dr. Jan van Lohuizen, President George W. Bush’s lead pollster. Freedom to Marry commissioned the study.

The average level of support for marriage equality was 41 percent in 2009, but 51 percent in 2011, based on four leading national polls -- CNN-ORC International, Gallup, Pew, and Washington Post-ABC News.

This change is driven in part by “overwhelming generational momentum,” Wolfson explained, with almost 70 percent of voters under 40 supporting marriage equality.

But the analysis also concluded that since 2006, support has risen 15 percent among seniors, 13 percent among Independents, and 8 percent among Republicans.

Additionally, it found that marriage equality supporters now hold their views as strongly as opponents, which was not the case in the past.

“The politics of the freedom to marry have changed dramatically, as has public support,” said Wolfson.

All told, he said, the events of 2011 mean that “We now have real wind in our sails as we go forward.”

Francis George

Last week Chicago’s Roman Catholic leader, Cardinal Francis George, decried a rerouting of the 2012 June LGBT Pride parade route to a path that would take the march in front of a Catholic church. The Cardinal caused an uproar, saying “You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”

Initially the Cardinal refused to apologize or renounce his comments, but facing criticism on Christmas Sunday, the Cardinal sought to downplay his comments.

“Obviously, it’s absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan, but if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we’ve had in our past because it stops us from worshiping God, well then that’s the comparison, but it’s not with people and people — it’s parade-parade,” George said Sunday.

When the Cardinal made his comments, initially on a Chicago Fox station, a reporter asked him if his comparison between the LGBT community and the Ku Klux Klan were too harsh, but the Cardinal said no.

“It is, but you take a look at the rhetoric,” George responded. “The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church.”

The organizers of Chicago Pride had already been in talks with the gay-friendly Catholic Church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, whose concerns had been characterized as being about the timing of the parade coinciding with parishioners leaving the church after Sunday morning mass. The church is located just outside of Chicago’s famous ‘Boystown’ gay neighborhood.

According to the news network, Cardinal George plans to send a letter of resignation to the Vatican after his 75th birthday next month. The resignation appears not to be related to the calls among the LGBT community for the Cardinal’s resignation, as ABCnews notes all bishops are required to do so. Chicago will await a decision on whether or not Pope Benedict XVI will accept the resignation.

Francis George

“You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism,” the Cardinal told Fox News Chicago on Sunday.

“That’s a little strong analogy, isn’t it? Ku Klux Klan?” the Fox reporter said to the Cardinal in response.

“It is, but you take a look at the rhetoric,” he responded. “The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church.”

The Rev. Eric Lee, Executive Director for the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — an organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — was quick to speak out against Cardinal George’s remarks.

“I have spent most of my adult life engaged in the civil rights struggle for African American people who have been terrorized by racist Klan violence,” Lee said in a statement. “I am insulted by the comparison of the Klan to the current LGBT movement. When we distort the history of terror for cheap political aims, we only inflict pain on those whose lives have been scarred by the Klan.”

The Pride parade controversy stems from a planned change to the route and start time of the annual LGBT Pride parade, which attracts over 750,000 people to the north side Chicago neighborhood every year.

After police complained about overcrowding and violence along the parade route in 2011, organizers planned to change the event’s route, and moved the start time up to 10:00am to noon to curb morning drinking.

The new route, however, takes the parade down Belmont St. in front of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church during crowded Sunday mass. Pastor Father Thomas Srenn and the church asked parade organizers to make changes to avoid a collision between the parade festivities and the Sunday service. Parade organizers — including openly gay city alderman Tom Tunney whose district the parade takes place in — and the parish agreed to changes that move the parade start time back to the original 12:00pm.

Fr. Srenn told the Windy City Times that the agreement satisfies Mt. Carmel’s concerns. “It was a good and reasonable solution that we all came to.”

According to the Windy City Times, Our Lady of Mount Carmel hosts the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach, and Srenn told the paper that the parish’s reservations about the event “had nothing to do with the content of the parade.”

In a statement this week, openly gay State Rep. Greg Harris, whose district includes the planned route, lamented the Cardinal’s “unfortunate choice of words.”

“It probably will provoke other unfortunate words [from some gay activists],” Harris said.

Cardinal George and the Archdiocese of Chicago have clashed on multiple issues this year, including the passage and implementation of Civil Unions in Illinois, and same-sex foster and adoptive parents, which resulted in Catholic Charities ending foster care placement services in the state in order to avoid being forced to place children with otherwise qualified same-sex couples, which the church objects to.

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Ashlynn Conner

The Chicago Tribune reported that Ashlynn's family said she had been teased by children at Ridge Farm Elementary School and in her neighborhood in the small town for several years. Ridge Farm is about 45 miles southeast of Champaign.

"When she started cheering for youth football, we'd gotten her hair cut in a bob," Ashlynn's grandmother, Lory Hackney said.

"The kids started making fun of her then. They started calling her a boy.'' Since then, she'd often been called fat or ugly, her family said.

County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said investigators are considering bullying as a possibility. "We are not ruling out bullying, but we don't have any firm evidence to support bullying," he said.

Ashlynn was a fifth-grader at Ridge Farm and did well in school, her family said, making the honor roll in the most recent quarter. She talked about becoming a veterinarian when she grew up.

But she complained Thursday after school about other girls picking on her that day and asked if she could be home-schooled, her mother said at a candlelight service for her daughter at a local church. Conner said she told Ashlynn they'd talk to the school principal this week about the problem.

Conner said she heard her daughter on the phone with a friend Friday night talking about being teased. A half-hour later, Ashlynn's 14-year-old sister found her hanging in her bedroom closet, Conner said.

"I don't know what was so bad she couldn't wait," Hackney said. She's a retired nurse and tried to give her granddaughter CPR, she said.

Chicago Tribune

The medical examiner noted that the final autopsy results may take a few weeks.

Experts say that incidents of suicides among young children under the age of 14 is uncommon but does happen hundreds of times a year.

Statistics from the Illinois Department of Health revealed that in 2009, three children in Illinois — one who was 10 and two aged 11 — killed themselves over a three-week period. The deaths weren't related.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 200 children between the ages of 10 and 14 killed themselves each year between 1999 and 2005, the most recent year for which data is available.

Even some who I once considered allies in our fight have said to me “I think you should be able to get married, but I really believe children should have a mother and father” or “gay people should not be allowed to adopt.”

This belief stems from generations of lies which make people think of gays and lesbians as pedophiles.

From public service announcements in the 50′s to anti-gay hate groups scraping to connect the recent child rape tragedy at Penn State to gay men, we have never been at a loss for people who – even subconsciously – carry this ignorant defamation.

In 2005, I was lucky enough to go on Rosie O’Donnell’s first “R Family Cruise.” I watched shows, had conversations with LGBT parents and I wished that some of the people who have spoken so falsely about us could see how much love there was there.

Almost every one of these children had to be fought for – some parents lived in states where same-sex parent adoption was not legal and some fought tooth-and-nail through divorces where anti-gay judges refused custody because one parent was gay. And I thought – how many heterosexual parents do I know that can truly say they had to fight for their children – legally – in court? How many straight parents do I know had the state they live in tell them they have no rights as a parent?

Well, times are changing.

Every reliable study that has been done has proven again and again that LGBT parents are just as, if not better equipped to parent than opposite-gender parents. And a recent study released by the Family Equality Council shows us all the great inequalities our well-equipped families are facing all over the U.S. In the past decade, the number of lesbian and gay adoptive couples has tripled.

Bob McDonnell

In states across the country, adoption agencies are still discriminating against gay and lesbian parents.

In Virginia, a study was done by the previous Governor which found that confirmed every other reasonable study has found – which is that we make excellent parents. But of course, under the current anti-gay administration, all the scientific findings were dismissed and the lesbian and gay adoption ban was left in place by Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.

This, despite the fact that there are more than 6,000 children in the Virginia foster care system waiting for a forever home.

Catholic Charities in many states have fought tooth-and-nail against states which require adoption agencies treat all families equally.

And after a hard-fought battle in Illinois, Catholic Charities has chosen to abandon up to 2,200 children instead of allowing them to be placed with capable, loving gay and lesbian parents.

Several Catholic Charities Adoption Agencies have chosen to do the same in other states. Over and over again, the Catholic dioceses have made the conscious decision to abandon orphans and foster children rather than place them in loving, forever homes, based on nothing in their actual belief system.

As the Bible clearly says zero about lesbians and gays raising children, the choice to close down their agencies has nothing to do with their religion and everything to do with wrongfully-held beliefs based on nothing but rumors and baseless fear tactics created decades ago.

It is indeed heartbreaking to see those who claim “Christian” beliefs act so hatefully by leaving thousands of children with nothing to fall back on.

Fortunately, Catholic Charities around the country represent a tiny sliver of all the adoptions that take place on a regular basis around the country and the children represented by those agencies that close will be taken in by state agencies which do not practice discrimination.

So, at the end of the day, this is a good thing and those kids will now have a much greater shot at finding their forever home.

Three Roman Catholic dioceses have dropped their lawsuit against the state of Illinois, agreeing to transfer more than 1,000 foster care children and staff to other agencies in their regions to avoid placing children in the homes of gay and lesbian parents.

The Illinois Catholic Charities was seeking an exemption from the state's new civil unions law which took effect on June 1. The law requires any charity that accepts state money to provide child-care services to treat people in civil unions as it would treat married couples.

The decision by leaders in the dioceses of Joliet, Springfield and Belleville ends a historical partnership between Illinois and the charitable arm of the Catholic Church, which inspired the state to address child welfare in the first place and led to the creation of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

[...]

In discussions after the civil union bill went into effect in June, representatives for Catholic Charities in Joliet, Springfield, Peoria, Rockford and Belleville told the state that accommodating prospective foster parents in civil unions would violate Catholic Church teaching that defines marriage between a man and a woman.

Pointing to a clause in the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act that they believe protects religious institutions that don't recognize civil unions, the agencies said they would refer those couples elsewhere and only license married couples and single parents living alone.

But lawyers for the Illinois attorney general said that exemption only shields religious clergy who don't want to officiate at civil unions. The policy of Catholic Charities violated state anti-discrimination laws that demanded couples in civil unions be treated the same as married couples, they said.

Chicago Tribune

The state previously provided Catholic Charities $30 million annually for its services, but announced in July it would not renew its foster care and adoption contracts with Catholic Charities when the group said it would not comply with the civil unions law.

"I am encouraged to hear that Catholic Charities has realized they cannot win this lawsuit," said Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights Agenda.

"This case and the legislation that has been introduced multiple times this year is all about prioritizing religion over what is best for the children in their care. Finding a loving home for the thousands of children in the foster/adoption system should be the priority, not trying to exclude people based on religious dogma. Dropping this suit is a step in the right direction for what is best for all the citizens of this great state," he said.

The Rockford and Peoria dioceses have already terminated their adoption and foster cares programs and transferred their child welfare cases to other agencies willing to work with gay and lesbian couples.

Kevin Kloosterman

Speaking at an interfaith service held at the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City, Illinois-based Bishop Kevin Kloosterman told the crowd of around 300, “If you leave here not remembering what I have to say, remember this: I’m sorry."

Kloosterman spoke at the final event of a weekend-long seminar dedicated to exploring gay Mormon issues, titled Circling the Wagons. He said he recently became aware of LGBT issues and his views changed from that of the church — that acting on gay urges violates its moral code — and had a “mighty change of heart.”

“I began to see the emotional wounds and scars that many of you have today,” Kloosterman said, “and I began to ask, ‘Where did you get these wounds?’ And the answer, unfortunately, was in the house of my friends.

The straight members of the church have a lot of repenting to do,” he said.

He clarified that he was speaking only on his own behalf and did not intend to represent the views of the church.

The Salt Lake City Tribune

John Dehlin, a researcher and founder of Mormon Stories and the Open Stories Foundation -- the organizations that hosted the event -- told the Salt Lake City Tribune, “I thought it was highly significant just to have a sitting bishop who cares so much for these issues that he’s willing to fly himself out here and speak publicly.”

Joe Walsh

“Congressman Walsh and other ‘True Blue Members’ have voted to repeal Obamacare, de-fund Planned Parenthood, end government funding for abortion within the health care law, uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, and continue support for school choice. I applaud their commitment to uphold the institutions of marriage and family,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.

Of course the ugly irony is that last week, the FRC publicly prayed that God would keep gays from adopting children. So apparently being gay father or a lesbian mother is a bad thing, but not paying your child support is a virtue.

But what gets me is Walsh's response in receiving the award:

“I am proud and honored to be recognized by the Family Research Council as the only member from Illinois with a 100 percent pro-family voting record,” he said in a press release. “Defending American values have always been one of my top priorities, and this reward reaffirms my dedication to that fight.”

Yes, I know. Apparently paying for your children's care isn't an American value in Walsh's book. Now allow me to tell you what will probably happen next.

The Family Research Council will either ignore this incredible faux pas on its part or respond much later after formulating some type of battle plan to explain away what it did.

Count on this battle plan to include one-sided articles in phony "pro-family" publications such as the American Family Association's One News Now and appearances on "friendly" areas such as Fox News.

But above all, this battle plan will not include anything remotely looking like an apology or any type of acknowledgement that the organization goofed.

After all, the Family Research Council works for Jesus. And those who work for Jesus never makes goofs.

About the Author:

Todd and Mark Wathen of Mattoon, Ill., allege that both the Timber Creek Bed and Breakfast in Paxton, Ill., and the Beall Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Alton, Ill., discriminated against them by refusing to host their legally recognized ceremony, reported the Windy City Times.

Mark (left) and Todd Wathen

Illinois legalized civil unions for same-sex couples earlier this year.

According to the complaints, filed individually on behalf of both Mark and Todd, the Wathens inquired with the inns in February, in anticipation of having a ceremony when civil unions went into effect in June. Both of the inns turned them away, they said.

"We were thrilled that Illinois provided legal recognition to our relationship," said Todd Wathen in the statement. "It hurt to face this blatant discrimination just as the state was making such progress in treating lesbian and gay couples fairly."

The complaint alleges that Jim Belote, Beall Mansion owner, told Todd Wathen in an email that his inn was only performing "traditional weddings."

[...]

Following their lack of success booking at the Beall Mansion, the Wathens contacted Jim Walden at Timber Creek. In an email response to their inquiry, Walden told Todd Wathen that his inn would "never" host same-sex civil unions or weddings because "we believe homosexuality is wrong and unnatural based on what the bible says about it."

According to the complaints, Walden followed his response unsolicited three days later, citing verses on how "The Creator of the Earth looks at the gay lifestyle."

"It is not too late to change your behavior," the email stated. "He is loving and kind and ready to forgive all men their trespasses, including me."

Windy City Times

The couple, who has been together nearly ten years, has filed complaints with the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the Dept. of Human Rights alleging violations of the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by businesses open to the public.

The attorney general’s office is “reviewing the case to determine if these individuals may have been discriminated against over their sexual orientation,” said Robyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office. “If so, that would be a violation of the state’s civil rights law.”

About 21,740 same-sex couples had adopted children in 2009, up from 6,477 in 2000, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. About 32,571 adopted children were living with same-sex couples in 2009, up from 8,310 in 2000. The figures are an analysis of newly released Census Bureau estimates.

The New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released a report Thursday culminating a four-year project surveying 158 gay and lesbian parents and their experience with the adoption process. Their researchers found the highest number of homosexuals adopted children from Massachusetts, California, New York and Texas.

Associated Press, via Los Angeles Times

While several states specifically prohibit same-sex couples from adopting jointly, others have eased restrictions on gay families.

Last year, Florida ended its 33-year ban on gay parent adoptions -- Florida was the only state in the U.S. that legally disallowed any and all LGBT parents from adopting, although they could be foster parents.

And in New York, former Gov. David Paterson last year signed an adoption bill allowing unmarried partners — including gay couples — to jointly adopt a child.

But in Virginia, the State Board of Social Services voted in April to reject new adoption rules that would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt in the state for the first time. Virginia allows adoption by married couples and single parents, regardless of sexual orientation, prohibits adoptions by unmarried couples — gay or straight.

In Arkansas, the state's Supreme Court in April struck down a voter-approved initiative that barred gay couples and other unmarried people living together from adopting or serving as foster parents.

In Arizona, a bill signed by Gov. Jan Brewer will direct the state and other adoption agencies to give married couples a preference over single adults when placing children in adoptive homes.

And in Illinois, Catholic Charities has refused to recognize the state's new civil unions law, and continues to disallow gay couples and others living together outside marriage to be foster or adoptive parents.

According to the Williams Institute study, about one-third of the adoptions by lesbians and gay men were "open," and the birth families' initial reactions regarding sexual orientation were very positive. The report estimates about 50 percent of adoptive gay families adopt children from foster care.

Calvin Lindstrom, pastor of the Chicago Christian Liberty Academy, said that plastic bags containing bricks and scrawled with messages such as “Shut down Lively” were thrown through the school's windows, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.

Scott Lively

Lively, an anti-gay speaker and author, was scheduled to speak before a dinner gathering Saturday evening hosted by the Naperville, Ill.-based Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality, (AFTAH) -- a group that has been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center for their ongoing propaganda campaign of demonizing the LGBTQ community.

Lively is a vehement activist against LGBTQ people and the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, a conservative Christian organization which also is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has stated that there is justification for the criminalization of "the public advocacy of homosexuality," and has also been directly linked to pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda that would, if passed, make homosexuality punishable by a lengthy prison sentence or even death.

Sergeant Tom Boggs, a spokesman for the Arlington Heights Police, said several window panes and a glass door panel were shattered at the school located sometime before 8 a.m. Saturday. Police have declined comment on whether or not this act would be considered a hate crime.

According to the Sun-Times, an envelope in one of the bags contained a handwritten message saying, “This is just a sample of what we will do if you don’t shut down Scott Lively and AFTAH. Fuck Scott Lively. Quit the homophobic shit.”

Late Saturday, Peter LaBarbera, head of AFTAH, said he considered the incident to be a hate crime committed by gay activists.

“If this would have occurred at a gay church, there would have been a public outcry,” LaBarbera said.

Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago based Gay Liberation Network (GLN), said 30 people from his group and from the group Anti-Racist Action protested during Lively’s speech. He said he did not know who vandalized the academy but doubted it was the work of gay activists.

Alderman Tom Tunney told the Chicago Sun-Times the parade remains a celebration of the community's history and rights, but that it has outgrown its size, and that he wants to keep it safe.

"There’s people concerned about alcohol being consumed on that day," said Tunney, the city's first openly gay Alderman. "Complaints are that people actually bring their coolers and consume a lot. An earlier start time will promote less drinking."

The changes are the most significant to the parade in many years, said Rich Pfeiffer, chief organizer of the event.

"You weigh the pros and cons… and the bottom line was safety," said Pfeiffer. "We just did not want a repeat of last year."

A near doubling of attendance at the parade in June presented greater challenges for parade officials. At the 2011 Parade, crowds were so large and out of control that many parade-goers said they feared for their safety. Last year's parade saw a turnout of approximately 800,000 people, compared with an estimated 450,000 in 2010.

via: Windy City Times

Some have attributed increased attendance this year to media attention centering on LGBT people leading up to the parade, as the Illinois Civil Unions law went into effect earlier that same month.

Suhr writes:

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services wants to cancel contracts totaling more than $30.6 million with Catholic Charities in four Illinois dioceses because the nonprofit refuses to recognize the law that allows unmarried couples – gay or straight – to legally enter into civil unions. If such couples wanted to be foster or adoptive parents, the charity would steer them to other agencies.

Catholic Charities sued the state in July, arguing it shouldn't be forced to place children in homes of unmarried couples and that state laws provide religious exemptions. A judge sided with the state, and the charity pledges to appeal.

As the legal dispute plays out in court, the families involved say the matter is also one of faith and loyalty.

Catholic Charities is handling about 2,000 of the state's 15,400 foster care and adoption cases. Church officials say many families with which they work may not want to continue with another agency.

Here's the problem I have with this controversy, which I might add, is also very much applicable to Massachusetts, Iowa, D. C. New York- in fact anywhere same-sex marriage or civil unions has been codified into statue of the applicable jurisdictions and the so-called Christians pitch a fit, the only real losers in this ideological battle are the children.

One angry commenter in the comments after Suhr's piece wrote:

You are the same people who put your church above the children when it came to the church sex scandal. Look the other way as long as the bishop transfered the pedophile priest to another parish. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. In your world, you would prefer having a kid live in an orphanage or a dysfunctio­nal situation rather than a loving family who the parents are of the same sex.

Put the children first

Obviously this person is not a huge fan of the Catholic faith, which, I should add, neither am I despite my upbringing as a Catholic back home in my native Ontario.

The truth should be so simple even in consideration regarding the current cultural/theological divide in American society, religion should have absolutely no role in fundamental functions such as social services if the premise of keeping dogma from interfering cannot be adhered to.

In the article, Suhr writes about one couple from Murphysboro, Illinois:

Tammy Penrod and her husband have been foster parents to about 20 children for about the past six years through various agencies, most recently Catholic Social Services. The couple, who have three grown biological children, now have two foster children – siblings ages 10 and 8 – whom they're adopting.

"It was a calling," said Penrod, who runs a daycare center. "We felt God was calling us into this for kids."

Penrod – who is opposed to civil unions for any couples, gay or straight – believes the state's stance is an affront to religious rights. If a judge rules against Catholic Charities, she said, "as soon as our adoption is through, this couple will be gone."

What really bothers me and my sense of fair play is that these people continue to disregard that which they constantly cite as the authority by which they proclaim allows them to discriminate and rail against their fellow humans. It strikes me that contrary to the principles contained in their alleged religious holy book, in particular ignoring that poor Jewish carpenter's Golden Rule, appears to be tantamount to their overall ideology in addressing "specific" instances.

Over the past several years I have labeled the sum of this peculiar institution in America, encompassing all of the branches or faith doctrines- Catholic, Pentecostal-Evangelical- as "corporate Christianity." It is an unyielding, hypocritical, and dangerous theocratic dogma that has infected mainstream American politics and society not unlike a virus.

When you contrast the millions upon millions of dollars that this parasitic grouping of institutions have spent to marginalize and demonize LGBTQ persons against the stark reality of the needs of the poor, disadvantaged and children who need loving homes and who need to be nurtured, it is difficult to not feel disgusted and angered.

What about the children?

According to the corporate Christians and their reprehensible behavior directed towards the LGBTQ community, society is apparently better served by letting children rot in institutional environs than risk allowing loving and capable same-sex couples to be adoptive or foster parents. Numbing to any who possess a modicum of plain old common sense is that their opposition to LGBTQ persons is based upon hugely flawed interpretation of a bronze age tome.

Disturbingly, their disingenuous attempt to portray themselves as representative of every American's opinion is never exposed by the mainstream media nor does it seem that there is a substantial number of politicians who are willing to have the courage to step up and decry corporate Christianity for the damage this parasite inflicts upon innocents.

I found that another person commenting upon the article had offered this perfect summation:

It's simple blackmail : "If the state doesn't give us money, we are turning out the children".

This way, you can see exactly how much "charity" with someone else's money the "Catholic Charities (lol)" are doing. If they have to "do good" on their own expenses, there is no "good" to be done, quite the reverse .

In every definition of the word, "charity" implies raising funds or using their own money. Blackmailing for state funds and using money from taxpayers they hate and discriminate against doesn't count as "raising funds," and is not exactly "charitable."