HAMILTON — Grace calls Michael “Daddy,” and calls his partner Andrew “Dada.”

And as the 2-year-old pedaled around Michael’s feet on her red tricycle, Michael said he was “incensed” by a new Butler County Children Services policy that he takes to mean he’ll only be used as a last resort foster or adoptive parent because he’s gay.

The agency quietly created the policy Dec. 8 after Andrew — who asked to not use their last names over safety concerns involving the biological family — adopted Grace after caring for her as a foster father since birth.

The agency’s policy gives traditional married couples preference over single parents or same-sex couples in fostering and adopting children.

Children Services Director Michael Fox said the policy — possibly the only one of its kind in the state — is not meant to discriminate, and the agency didn’t oppose Grace’s adoption.

See Gay men criticize new adoption, foster care policy

Middletown Journal

More lies form another Roman Catholic Group: there’s no evidence children adopted by Straight families do better than kids adopted by gay or lesbian families.

A new Butler County Children Services policy gives traditional couples preference over single parents or same-sex couples in fostering or adopting children.

The policy, adopted Dec. 8, states, “The purpose of adoption is not to provide children for adults who want them, but to provide for children families that give them the experience of intact married family life as much as possible.”

Children Services Director Michael Fox said they adopted the policy when he learned they didn’t have one in the midst of an effort by two gay men to adopt a 2-year-old child.

Fox said the policy’s goal is not to discriminate, but to give children the best chance at succeeding.

“Data-wise, and there’s tons of it, kids do better…when there is a traditional married couple,” Fox said.

 See4 Children services policy gives preference to traditional marriage Lebanon Western Star

Don’t you just love it when “Christian lawmakers” like those in Kentucky move to ban “gay adoption” and “gay foster care” but never get around to opening their own homes up to the kids who need to be adopted? Their hypocrisy is stunning.

A bill seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian couples from adopting children has won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure would also bar unmarried heterosexual couples from adoption or foster care.

 See `Anti-Gay‘ Adoption Bill Advances WBKO

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Senate Judiciary Committee gave unanimous approval this afternoon to a bill that would ban unmarried couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents in Kentucky. See Panel backs bill to bar adoption by unmarried couples Louisville Courier-Journal

Activists had billed Wednesday as “a day without a gay,” when gays and lesbians across the country would call in sick, boycott shopping and show the impact of their absence from everyday life.

Designed to be a protest against the Nov. 4 passage of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, the day’s events drew only scattered support in the Bay Area, the heart of the gay rights movement, and also criticism.

Several gay and lesbian people said they couldn’t afford to take the day off, particularly in a tightening economy where many are concerned about their jobs. And in the Castro district, business owners were livid that people were encouraged to not shop during the holidays, a peak time for retailers.

“Our rights have been taken away as much as anyone else’s,” said Rich Boutell, who runs Whatever comics on Castro Street and whose marriage was thrown into limbo with the Nov. 4 election. He and his husband, Cougar Andrews, kept their store open and wished the “day without a gay” organizers had encouraged gay-allied individuals to patronize gay-owned businesses. “The whole purpose should be to support your own, not to boycott. If you’re going to have a protest, it should be a positive thing. The gay dollar is powerful.”

Those who did take off work said they did it with the cooperation of employers.

They included Glenn Coffee, 48, a Noe Valley resident who works at Macy’s and said the store has always been supportive of gay employees and the gay community. The main purpose, he said, of calling in sick was to show that “as a community, we can show we have worth.”

The day’s events prompted a mixed response, which might indicate that the gay rights movement is still finding its voice. Gay and lesbian people are included in ways never imagined decades ago, such as domestic partnership rights in states across the nation and being included by a presidential candidate in his election-night victory speech.

But there are also dramatic challenges. Thirty states, including California, explicitly ban same-sex marriage, and Arkansas voters recently passed a ballot measure to ban unmarried couples from adopting children, an initiative directly aimed at thwarting gay and lesbian parenthood.

Religious groups, students, business owners and shoppers all had different views of a day focused on gay rights.

A group of Bay Area Catholics gathered in the Castro district on Wednesday evening for a prayer vigil to atone for the actions of church leaders. Because Wednesday was also International Human Rights Day, they focused their efforts on the rights of gays and lesbians.

‘Day without a gay‘ protest fizzles
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA

Gay rights supporters scored another major victory in court Tuesday, when a state judge in Miami tossed out a statute that had for more than 30 years barred gay people in Florida from adopting children. The decision came after a week packed full of dueling expert testimony over whether any evidence supports the state’s contention that children are put at risk when raised by gay parents. The answer, said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy S. Lederman, is not at all: “The Department’s position is that homosexuality is immoral. Yet, homosexuals may be lawful foster parents in Florida and care for our most fragile children who have been abused, neglected and abandoned. As such, the exclusion forbidding homosexuals to adopt children does not further the public morality interest it seeks to combat.”

Yet, despite the good news for gays contained in the ruling, the decision is hardly the last word on the issue. The state has vowed to appeal, and the issue is likely to end up before the Florida Supreme Court, which upheld the ban once before in 1995. On the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court has already let stand lower court rulings that upheld Florida’s law, the nation’s strictest ban on gay adoption. (See a video on the backlash against gay marriage in Florida.)

Meanwhile, conservative activists across the country are working hard to make sure that no court, at any level, has the final word on gay adoption. Like gay marriage before it, conservatives are looking at the issue of who can raise children as one best decided at the ballot box, not in the courthouse. Those efforts received a boost on election day in Arkansas, where voters easily passed a law that restricts any unmarried couple living together from adopting children. Arkansas joined Florida, Nebraska, Utah and Mississippi as the only states with laws that either directly or indirectly ban adoption by gays.

  See The Fight Over Gay Adoption Heats Up
TIME