Illinois Senator Tries To Sneak Through an Anti-Gay Adoption Amendment

by Mindy Townsend · 2011-04-12 12:40:00 UTC
Topics:

Just when things start going pretty well, something pops up and throws a wrench in the whole endeavor. That’s how it is for me, anyway, and that’s how it is for LGBT people living in Illinois this week.

It only took a couple of months after Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed the civil union bill into law for the haters to strike again. State Senator David Koehler has slipped an amendment that would make it legal for religious institutions to discriminate against LGBT people in adoption and foster care.

Oh, and did I mention that the bill this is attached to is designed to help the blind? That’s low, man.

So, I guess it’s more important to allow religious adoption agencies to be allowed to turn away perfectly good parents for no good reason, than to allow kids who need parents to live with gay people. All in the name of God, I guess. This is just another instance where people try to hide behind religion in order to justify personal biases, and the legislature totally has their backs.

Sometimes I feel like I’m missing something very important that makes this make sense. But the more I think about it, the more confused I get. Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong.

To attach this amendment to a bill that is designed to help the blind is a truly insidious act. Who wants to vote against blind people? Sen. Koehler knows he doesn’t have the support; otherwise, why try to hide it? If anti-gay representatives are going to try to force a hateful bill through legislators, they should be forced to do it in the light of day, where their policy positions can be subject to the ridicule they deserve.

This is an attempt by Illinois legislators to roll back the civil union law that hasn’t even gone into effect yet. Tell the Illinois senate to reject such an amendment and any bill to which it is attached. It’s the right thing to do.

Photo credit: nathanmac87

Mindy Townsend is a recent law graduate.

RELATED PETITION

Say NO to Anti-Gay Adoption Amendment in Illinois
SIGN PETITION
423 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
Mississauga Catholic Students Bullied After Trying to Start Gay-Straight Alliance
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (7)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.