On several different fronts the battle for and against gay adoption is once again being fought across the country. From the polls in Arkansas, to a Florida courtroom to the floor of the Tennessee legislature, people on both sides of the issue are fighting it out. Each battlefield however is producing very different results.

On November 4, the country’s primary focus was understandably the historic election of Barack Obama. But in the state of Arkansas the electorate wasn’t only casting votes for its elected officials. Voters there also passed a measure banning unmarried couples living together from serving as adoptive or foster parents. The measure, which was aimed primarily at keeping gays from becoming foster or adoptive parents, surprisingly received nearly 57-percent support.

The measure’s sponsor, the Arkansas Family Council, positioned the measure as a battle against a “gay agenda” and the strategy appeared to have worked. Exit polls taken on Election Day showed the measure was supported by residents identifying themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians. Rural voters by and large also supported the measure.

Those who opposed the ban included Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. Opponents like Beebe pointed to a current lack in foster homes as reason enough to vote against the measure. With its passage they now fear children in need of homes will be the ones who suffer the fall out. According to state officials, 1000 children in Arkansas are presently waiting to be adopted. The ban will in effect reduce the number of homes available. Children in need of parents and guardians will now likely have to wait even longer.

With those concerns in mind, opponents of the new Arkansas law filed a lawsuit at the end of December, asking a judge to strike the measure down. The lawsuit contends the new law violates federal and state constitutional rights to equal treatment and due process. The suit also argues the measure disregards the best interests of children while keeping children in state custody at additional and unnecessary costs to taxpayers.

Very similar arguments are what compelled a Florida judge to overturn her state’s long standing gay adoption ban. Ironically, the Florida ruling was handed down just three weeks after the Arkansas vote. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge found a Florida law that has banned adoptions by gay men and lesbians for over three decades unconstitutional. The judge said prohibiting homosexual adoption was not in the best interest of children and that the law violated equal protection rights for both children and prospective parents. Advocates for gay adoption say the Florida ruling also makes very clear that the evidence points to the fact that children raised by gay parents fare just as well as those raised by straight parents.

And now, the Tennessee legislature is weighing in on the issue. On January 30, a bill was introduced that would prohibit Tennessee couples-both gay and straight- who aren’t married from adopting. Unless a couple is actually married, they would be prohibited from adopting. The bill does not affect singles who adopt.

In fact across the country gay individuals have a far easier time adopting than couples. However in more than 20 states, it’s ambiguous as to whether the second person in a couple can also adopt their partner’s adopted or biological child if the person is gay. States like Utah, Michigan, Mississippi, and New Hampshire all have laws that do ban joint adoption.

It has been two years since the Ohio legislature took up the gay adoption issue. A bill introduced then would have fallen in line with the measures Florida recently overturned. Its intent was to bar all adoptions and foster care by gays and lesbians. The bill didn’t go far though, never even making it to the hearing stage. Presently Ohio permits single adoptions by gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals. Ohio law does not clearly prohibit joint gay adoption either. However, second-parent adoption, where one parent already has legal rights of the child and a second parent is petitioning for joint rights, is not allowed.

Ironically adoption advocates on both sides of this issue often cite the same concern when arguing their position on the subject of gay adoption: The quality of a child’s life. Advocates of gay adoptions claim that thousands of children need loving homes and to forbid gay adoption is to reduce the overall number of homes available. However, groups against gay adoptions contend that gay adoption is an affront to conventional family values and that it’s in every child’s best interest to have both a mother and a father. Some of those same anti-gay adoption groups insist children raised in homosexual homes, especially females, act out sexually and that self-identity issues are prevalent. But The American Academy of Pediatrics and other gay adoption advocates point to the fact that there is no credible evidence that shows having gay parents harms children. Proponents also argue that for the children who never get placed in an adoptive home the future is often bleak and many of these children who leave the foster care system without ever finding a permanent family end up on the streets, or in jail, without a job or family to support them.

In the meantime, statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicate there are approximately 129,000 foster care kids across the country. It is these children who hang in the balance, all in need of a stable home. For each of them, these continuing battles may very well make the difference as to when they finally find it.

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