Roll Call Vote Crosses Party Lines
The Editors

The omnibus Child Protective Services reform bill took on additional controversy in the House when State Rep. Robert Talton (R-Houston) succeeded in amending it to ban adoption by individuals who CPS reasonably believes to be homosexual or bisexual. The 81-58 vote crossed party lines with Rep. Todd Baxter (R-Austin) voting for the amendment and Rep. Terry Keel (R-Austin) voting against.

Interestingly, Baxter probably has the more socially liberal central west district compared to Keel’s southwestern stronghold.
Surprisingly, ten Republicans, including Keel, voted against Talton’s amendment. Almost all were from urban areas in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio where most gays live.

Gay rights groups predictably argued that gays have a civil right to adopt children through the state. Yet, there is no such right in the Constitution. In point of fact, the sole question should be what is in the best interests of the child.

If one attempts to evaluate this question based on scientific evidence rather than either a theocratic or civil rights approach, one finds there is strong evidence that gay parents do not make a child more likely to be a homosexual, but there is also strong evidence that a traditional family produces the most well-adjusted children. Whatever one’s own opinion is on the morality of homosexuality, the fact remains that a child with gay parents will be subject to teasing, and even humiliation, from his peers and this on top of the fact that many of the children in the state adoption systems may already have developmental problems - whether because of drug use by the mother while in the womb, or bouncing around between foster homes.

The other question is whether CPS can and should be in the business of investigating the sexual orientation of prospective parents.

Suffice to say, homosexual or bisexual are not defined in the bill, raising the question of whether someone who had such an experience at one point in time would still be considered to fall in either of these categories.

At the end of the day, the best solution might be to instruct CPS to prioritize traditional families as superior environments for raising children but then compare other alternatives to foster care when there is no traditional family available. The Senate, which has yet to weigh in on the issue, may wish to consider this.