Tennessee State Representative statements:

[Flirtus]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Tennessee state representative said most homosexual couples are unfit to parent, and that those couples have "numerous emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues."

............

Rep. Maggart said "the State Director, Hedy Weinburg of the ACLU and a representative from Focus on the Family," presented information at that study committee.
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"Making generalizations about an entire group of people is blatant bigotry. There are no peer-reviewed studies to support her claims so they are only based on her own prejudices," Cox said. "Her comments ought to be a wake up call not only for our rights but for anyone's rights who may be attacked. Our rights specifically are at risk and we need to be talking to our legislators about this issue."

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A bill to ban gay adoption failed last year. However, numerous bills affecting adopting and child visitation rights have been filed this year by many legislators who supported the gay adoption ban bills last year. Some political observers say that is a veiled attempt to ban gay adoption by amending other laws affecting parenting.

To view the entire email exchange between Dykstra and Rep. Maggart, go to www.outandaboutnewspaper.com. <3/22/06>

© 1997-2005 Ethan Interactive, Inc.

URL: http://www.outinnashville.com/home/news.asp?articleid=10972

It is hard to limit the quote to only four paragraphs! This was sent to me by a gay friend, with a "what are we do to about this?" message, and I thought I should tell everybody and not keep secrets about my state.

[EST]

1. Has anyone publicly demanded, from the representative,

a list of references and acknowledgments to back up that "most" label. Any person, especially a purported leader, who make public pronouncements which cannot be supported by accurate research deserves to be laughed out of the public arena.
I suspect that legal action is quite justified unless the comments were immediately preceded by, "It is my opinion that..."
Pretending to quote credentialed sources does leave one open to very large fraud judgments, especially in the public arena, when one is capable of influencing large numbers of people.

[Tenn Iconoclast]

2. Yes...

and Tennessee Dept. of Children's Services is currently under a class action suit, Bryan A, for not providing adequate services for their children in foster care. I worked as a field worker in foster care for ten years, leaving in '01, and I can tell you that they don't have enough staff and resources to provide adequate medical care, services, and placements to the children in foster care. The caseloads are so high that many of the workers are not even aware of where the children in their caseloads are, according to a newspaper report a couple of years back.

Rep. Maggot couldn't care less about these children in foster care.

[BR_Parkway]

3. Welcome to DU! - under that broad statement that 'most' aren't fit

and looking around at the way 'most' kids act today - I'd be inclined to say that 'most' str8 couples aren't fit to parents either.

[ThomasNewton]

4. The Memphis office on Jackson Ave is a disgrace

I worked as a contractor for the state. A few days before Christmas I was working at the Jackson Ave office. First thing I noticed on walking through the door was about 75 people sitting in the waiting area. I made my way on to back and here's what was happening:

In one cubicle 4 ladies were having their own little Christmas party, pie, cookies, cakes, candies the whole works. A few cubicles down from that another sat listening to Boyz To Men on her state owned computer. And another cubicles away from that another guy sat playing chess on his state owned computer. All this while at least 75 citizens sat out front waiting for help.

Another time:

I needed to do some along a certain wall in a particular room. I enter the room to find a woman asleep on couch. I think wow this is sort of weird but I go on about my work as quietly as possible. Shortly she gets up & leaves. About 10-15 minutes later she comes back, hits, the couch again & there she she for about an hour. She gets up,leaves, stays gone about 10-15 minutes & comes back again. I find out later that every time she leaves she's doing a lap or two around perimeter of the building & she is supposed to be ill. This goes on all day. This is what out tax money is paying for. We're paying for this woman to "exercise" & lay around on a couch all day. Now if this lady is so sick she needs to lay around 3/4 of the day I think she she ought to be either at home or in a hospital not laying on a couch in a state office drawing pay & not working.

[sui generis]

5. actually, most heterosexuals are unfit to be parents

on edit: nobody is born with a rulebook for raising children, just the examples you have from your own raising. That's why bitter little nasty homophobic parents suck as examples of good parenting.

And anyway, gays can have children same as anyone else, using the same methods. Is there a test for gayness that OBGYN has to administer before delivering and deciding whether you get to keep your own child?

This is such a complete contrived issue it's mind boggling.

And why aren't our people just shoving it in their faces? Is the next logical step that we test you for gayness before ALLOWING you to procreate? Personally I can't wait, since most of the AFA would be barred from birthin'.