Russia Expands Adoption Ban To All Countries With Same-Sex Marriage

Via TIME Magazine:

During an Olympics already mired in controversy over “gay propaganda” laws, Russia passed a statute Thursday forbidding single people (gay or straight) who live in any country where gay marriage is legal from adopting Russian children. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the measure as an amendment to the law passed last July forbidding all same-sex couples from adopting from Russia, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new decree will not affect American citizens, who have already been banned from adopting Russian children, regardless of their sexual preferences or marital status, since 2012.

More from Britain's Telegraph:

The decree, which is dated February 10 but was posted on the Russian government's website on Thursday, is officially intended to "help improve the procedure for transferring children without parental care to families of Russian and foreign citizens, and to protect the rights and interests of these children." The amendments to the Russian adoption law that were signed by Mr Medvedev include a bar on adoptions by "those in a same-sex union recognized as a marriage and registered an accordance with the law of states in which such marriage is allowed, and also citizens of such states who are not married."

Free Republic readers are celebrating.

Russia: Only Italy Can Adopt Our Children Because They Ban Gay Marriage

"It turns out that Italy is currently the only country whose citizens are able to adopt Russian children because, first of all, this country refused to recognise same-sex marriage, which, for its part, does not require Russia to change the existing agreement, and, secondly, (the Italians) abide by the terms of this treaty. That is all. It is not our fault. (Other countries) should work harder if you want international adoption to continue."- Pavel Astakhov, Russian Children's Rights Commissioner, speaking yesterday to Interfax.  Russia Today reports on the story with this quote from Astakhov: "Such cases of pedophilia, violence and brutality as we have in America, we have nothing like that anywhere else." (Tipped by JMG reader Calvin)

Russia Suspends Adoptions To Sweden

"The perverts? No, it is unacceptable. Homosexuals are 'perverts' and should absolutely not be allowed to adopt children. Children who grow up in that kind of environment are destroyed psychologically." - Russian MP Vitaly Milonov, speaking to Swedish television after Russia suspended adoptions to Sweden because of the legality of same-sex marriage there.

The Local has more:

"It's terrible. We have 13 children in Russian orphanages today who have been offered to parents in Sweden who they have actually met," said Jonas Friberg at the Adoptioncentrum agency in Sweden to Sveriges Television (SVT). Representatives of the Russian authorities and the Swedish embassy met yesterday to discuss the legal situation with regard to adoptions of Russian children. Russia is seeking to sign agreements with individual countries to ensure that Russian children do not come to LGBT parents, according to the SVT report.

Australian PM Officially Apologizes To Victims Of Forced Adoptions

The BBC reports:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has issued an apology to people affected by Australia's forced adoption policy between the 1950s and 1970s. Tens of thousands of babies of unmarried, mostly teenage mothers, were thought to have been taken by the state and given to childless married couples. Speaking in front of hundreds of the victims, Ms Gillard said the "shameful" policy had created "a legacy of pain."

12 Year-Old Adopted Child Of Gay Parents Writes To Supreme Court Justice Roberts

From the Leffew family in Northern California.

COLORADO: Civil Unions Bill To Be Heard By Senate Committee Next Week

On Wednesday the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on a proposed civil unions bill.

Senate Bill 11 would "authorize any 2 unmarried adults, regardless of gender, to enter into a civil union." Last year, the Colorado House failed to vote on a civil union bill before the end of a special session of the legislature. This legislative session, democrats control the majority in the House and Senate. House Speaker Mark Ferrandino (D - Denver) says he would like to have a civil unions bill on Governor Hickenlooper's desk by Valentine's Day but has acknowledge it may take more time to get the bill through both chambers.

Catholic Charities is already screaming about changes to this year's version of the bill. Via Catholic News Agency:

If the legislation passes this year, civil unions for two people of any sex would be legally equivalent to marriage under state law. The 2012 Colorado Senate bill proposing to create the unions had stated that the bill “shall not be interpreted to require a child placement agency to place a child for adoption” with a couple in a civil union. That language, however, is absent from the 2013 bill, S.B. 11.

Kraska said this change means the legislation has the potential for “serious conflict with religious liberty” regarding religious institutions involved in charitable services as well as adoption and foster care. Mark Rohlena, President and CEO of Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, said if the bill passes it could threaten the religious liberty of agencies like his that decline to place children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples.

“We feel it would be a very sad commentary if Colorado forced religious institutions or those who believe in a different framework to do something against their conscience,” he told CNA Jan. 16. If Colorado law forces the Colorado Springs-based agency to violate Catholic teaching, he said, “we probably would cease the operation of our adoption programs.”

National Adoption Month: One Gay Family's Response To Mitt Romney

Pat Robertson: Don't Adopt Children From Foreign Countries, They Might Be Weird

FRC Cheers Virginia Adoption Bill

You might recall that whackadoodle Del. Bob Marshall also wants Virginia to issue its own currency, to ban gays from the National Guard, and to make it a felony to fly the rainbow flag. Marshall also says that God punishes women who have abortions by giving their later children birth defects.

President Obama Mentions Gay Parents In National Adoption Month Proclamation

An excerpt:

The decision to adopt a child has brought profound joy and meaning into the lives of Americans across our country. Parents are moved to adopt for reasons as unique and varied as the children they embrace, but they are unified by the remarkable grace of their acts. Adoptive families come in all forms. With so many children waiting for loving homes, it is important to ensure that all qualified caregivers are given the opportunity to serve as adoptive parents, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or marital status.

The wingnut reaction should be delish.

NOM: Gays Hate Foster Children

Concerned Women Are Concernstipated About Gay People Adopting Guinea Pigs

The Concerned Women are going after Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who last week introduced a federal bill granting gay adoption rights in all states.

"Something around 65,000 adopted children and 14,000 foster children live in homes that are headed by non-heterosexuals, and yet the data very overwhelmingly says these homes are not as good for children," [Janet] Crouse notes. "They don't even come close to being as good for children as a married couple -- mom and dad -- family." And she suggests the measure is not so much about the children as it is about advancing the homosexual agenda. "That agenda is being advanced at the expense of our children and at the expense of the future of our country," the CWA spokesperson laments. "When you have children who are being used as guinea pigs like this, it's totally unwarranted."

Beaten To Death For Jesus

ILLINOIS: Republican Rep Attempts Adoption End Run Around Civil Unions

An Illinois GOP state senator has filed a bill that would grant a religious exemption to the state's Civil Union Act. Via the Christian Post:

State Senator Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon) introduced a bill to amend the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act to give faith-based agencies such as Catholic Charities the right to decline an adoption or a foster family home application if it violates the group's religious beliefs. McCarter said the bill has a strong chance of passage. "I do believe that if it's sent to the floor, there [are] enough votes to pass it in the House and the Senate," McCarter told the State Journal-Register. If the bill is passed in both the state House and Senate, it will go into effect immediately. The bill is great news for Catholic Charities attorney Peter Breen. He believes lawmakers did not intend for the Civil Union Act to put one of the state's oldest foster care and adoption agencies out of business.

Catholic Charities lost their publicly-funded contract this summer when they refused to comply with state law.

ILLINOIS: Judge Reinstates Adoption Contract With Catholic Charities

An Illinois judge has temporarily reinstated Catholic Charities as a state-funded adoption agency. This move comes one day after Illinois announced it was severing Catholic Charities' contract because it was apparent that the group would not abide by the new civil unions law.

Judge John Schmidt said the abrupt termination of the contracts could affect foster kids' well-being despite the state's assurances that about 2,000 foster children in Catholic Charities-supported homes would not be affected. He set a hearing on the matter Aug. 17. "We need to work together in these things, not to have this absolute bulwark, walls of separation between us," Catholic Charities lawyer Thomas Brejcha of Chicago said after the hearing. "All these kids need a good chance." The suit argues that the state can only enforce its dicta if there is a "compelling government interest" and it's the "least restrictive" means of achieving it. A far less restrictive method would be allowing Catholic Charities to continue referring gay couples to other agencies who handle adoptions and foster placements, its lawyers said.

IL Severs Ties With Catholic Charities

The state of Illinois has severed its relationship with Catholic Charities, ending all involvement and financial support for its adoption and foster programs.

Though four Catholic Charities agencies had already stopped licensing new foster parents, three of them will seek an injunction from a Sangamon County judge on Tuesday to continue serving families and abiding by Catholic principles that prohibit placing children with unmarried cohabiting couples. “We’re not sure what the state is intending to do or how it’s intending to do it,” said Peter Breen, an attorney with the Thomas More Society representing Catholic Charities. “It’s a surprise. But it’s also very disturbing. The impact on the [nearly 2,000] children in Catholic Charities care will be catastrophic.”

In letters sent last week to Catholic Charities in the dioceses of Peoria, Joliet and Springfield and Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said the state could not accept their signed contracts for the 2012 fiscal year. Each letter said funding was declined because “your agency has made it clear that it does not intend to comply with the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act,” which the state says requires prospective parents in civil unions to be treated the same as married couples.

In other states, Catholic Charities has chosen to go out of the adoption business rather than comply with laws regarding gay couples.

Tony Perkins On Illinois Civil Unions

"The so-called Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act has already done more harm to religious freedom than good. The Roman Catholic diocese in Rockford has announced that it will close its doors on the church's adoption program before subjecting children to placement in homosexual homes. Like it did in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., the Catholic Church refused to violate its convictions. Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before other dioceses follow suit. For the church, this is an act of self-defense. Without a religious exemption, the law makes programs like this one vulnerable to lawsuits or state budget cuts. Much to the frustration of the bill's own sponsor, the state refused to carve out special protections for the religious organizations like this one. And now the state's neediest children will be paying for it." - Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

ILLINOIS: Catholic Charities To End Adoption Services Due To Civil Unions

Catholic Charities of Rockford, Illinois announced yesterday that they will suspend all foster care and adoption services rather than comply with the state's new civil unions law.

Officials cited a lack of clarity in the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act, which does not specify whether religious child welfare agencies must place children with couples in civil unions. Without a specific provision protecting religious agencies, church officials said, the agency can't risk losing state contracts or facing lawsuits if it turns away gay couples or others in civil unions. State funds make up about half of Catholic Charities of Rockford's $7.5 million operating budget.

"While we understand leaving this work will be very painful for our client families, employees, volunteers, donors and prayerful supporters, we can no longer contract with the state of Illinois whose laws would force us to participate in activity offensive to the moral teachings of the church — teachings which compel us to do this work in the first place," said Frank Vonch, director of social services for the Diocese of Rockford, which includes Kane and McHenry counties.

Catholic adoption agencies in other Illinois cities say they have not yet decided whether to stay open.

Maggie Gallagher: Britain's War Against Christians Is Coming To America

"In Great Britain, Christians are now effectively second-class citizens, judged 'unfit' to care for foster children. If they are unfit to foster children, logically they are also unfit to adopt, and possibly as one British lawyer suggested to the press, unfit to parent their own children, too. Could it happen over here? Yes. We see the first steps of the muscular liberalism process at work already in the state of Illinois, in its probe of evangelical, Lutheran and Catholic foster-care agencies for discrimination against gay couples in foster care.

"For the ACLU and the gay rights community, suddenly the right to live as we choose isn't good enough. Any foster-care agency that does not place children with gay couples now must be discriminated against by the government in the name of anti-discrimination. The ACLU claims that legally requiring foster-care agencies to be inclusive would expand resources to help 16,000 kids currently in the Illinois foster-care system. This is just Orwellian doubletalk. The new 'inclusive' policy would exclude three religious foster-care agencies from recruiting parents. This cannot possibly expand resources available to needy kids." - NOM founder Maggie Gallagher, writing for Yahoo! News.

BBC Covers Foster Parents Case