Small Victories

Today was a small victory. The Tennessee House Children and Family Affairs Committee voted 11 to 9 to defeat the anti-gay adoption bill. Republican Rep. Chris Clem had previously allowed a “watered-down” version of the bill to go through committee in order to get it to the next level. At the committee meeting, Clem tried to reinstate the original version for a vote only to have it rejected. In fact, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh stepped in to vote against the bill as well. Naifeh said he spoke with his daughters and with a group of high school students in his district for their opinion on the bill, and they all felt “the bill was wrong.”

http://www.outandaboutnewspaper.com/adoptionbillcommitteedefeated.htm

While this puts the hiatus on directly hurting children, the next hurdle in Tennessee is the anti-gay marriage amendment. My question to these legislators who are willing to look out for the well-being of children, at least enough to open doors to give them a home, where do you think these kids go? To a family. Maybe a gay family. How does the state expect these children to be protected to the best of their abilities without state protections and benefits being given to the families? This simply doesn’t make sense.