By: D’Anne Witkowski*
Newsflash: homosexuality and pedophilia are not the same things. Equating the two makes as much sense as equating adopting a pet kitty from a shelter with luring a stray into your yard so you can torture and kill him. Surely anyone who thought the two were the same would be insane.
Though they still might be invited to talk on Public Radio International, specifically the To the Point program, when the topics are the Penn State child abuse scandal and same-sex couples adopting kids. Nice juxtaposition there, guys.
Special guest on the program was Jerry Cox of the Arkansas Family Council, a group that tried like the dickens to prevent gays and lesbians from being foster parents in Arkansas to no avail.
Cox seemed to equate gays wanting to foster or adopt children with Penn State child-rapist Jerry Sandusky (who fostered kids in the past). Not that this comparison makes sense, but that’s not Cox’s job. His job is to spew anti-gay invective whenever a microphone gets near his face.
“I find it interesting that we talk about the Penn State situation, and then when we talk about other situations where certain categories of people say it’s our right to adopt, it’s our right to be a foster parent, in both of those situations the rights of children seem to be put in second place,” Cox said.
Let’s crack the code. “Certain categories of people” most certainly means gays. And when he says “in both of these situations” Cox is clearly equating letting a known child-rapist foster children with allowing gay people to foster children. In only one of these “situations” are the rights and needs of a child “in second place.” Hint: it’s the child being fostered by the child rapist and second place is far too high of a finish. Last place is more like it.
For Cox, the most important things to look for in a foster family are one penis and one vagina.
“If you have a same-sex couple with an adopted child, what you’re in effect saying is that moms don’t matter or dads don’t matter,” he said. “Little girls grow up, little boys grow up and they need both of those role models to grow up in a balanced way.”
Mind you, Sandusky is a married-to-a-woman man, which means his family structure meets these criteria. What Cox means by balanced, I don’t know. Perhaps he’s worried two moms will teach a boy to pee sitting down or two dads might teach a girl to pee standing up.
When To the Point hosts suggested that children would perhaps be better off in a house with same-sex parents rather than languishing in the foster care system, Cox rejected the notion.
“Sometimes we sound as if those are the only two choices,” Cox said. “It’s like, child be institutionalized or be in a same-sex home or cohabiting home, or whatever. And I’d like to challenge this a little bit, to raise our sights a little bit, and say, you know, the state surely can do better than that.”
Yeah, stupid state. Being stuck in an orphanage on one hand, living in a household with two stable and loving foster parents who happen to be gay on the other. It’s like Sophie’s choice!
Of course, says Cox, those aren’t the only options.
“With all the millions of stable homes that are out there, surely the state of California the state of Pennsylvania, the state of Arkansas, wherever we are, surely we can find stable homes with a married mom and dad for these children,” he said.
Got that? There are millions of homes with stable one-penis-one-vagina structures oh so perfect for foster children. The problem is they’re apparently very well hidden. We’re just not looking hard enough. So come out, come out wherever you are. Cox has a pick-up truck full of kids with your (heterosexual only, please) names all over it.
*D’Anne Witkowski has been gay for pay since 2003. She’s a freelance writer and poet (believe it!). When she’s not taking on the creeps of the world she reviews rock ‘n’ roll shows in Detroit with her twin sister.
