A Stitch in Haste

As background:

Minority children in foster care are being ill-served by a federal law that plays down race and culture in adoptions, a report released on Tuesday said.

The report, based on an examination of the law's impact over a decade, said that minority children adopted into white households face special challenges and that white parents need preparation and training for what might lie ahead.
...
The report recommends that the law — the Multiethnic Placement Act, which covers agencies receiving federal dollars and promotes a color-blind approach — be amended to permit agencies to consider race and culture as one of many factors when selecting parents for children from foster care.

One can just see the anti-gay bigots putting the finishing touches on their talking points: If placing black children in white homes poses "special challenges," then does it not follow that placing (presumptively) straight children in gay homes also poses "special challenges"? If adoption should not be color-blind, then should it also not be sexual-orientation-blind?

If the bigots are willing to lie about "kids do best with a mom and dad," then surely they will also be willing to lie about "kids do best with their own kind — black with black, straight with straight."

And just to be clear: that would indeed be a lie —

The report points out that transracial adoption itself does not produce psychological or other social problems in children, but that these children often face major challenges as the only person of color in an all-white environment, trying to cope with being different.

No doubt, just as adopting a physically, mentally or emotionally handicapped child surely presents "major challenges." But people who are committed (and qualified), and who go out of their way, to undertake the greatest of all personal endeavors — adoption — will likely be able to confront those "major challenges," especially if they have the requisite information and preparation beforehand.

Which is really all the report is saying: Let the fact of the child's and the adoptive parents' race be one of several factors. Not a dealbreaker; not even a tiebreaker. Just a consideration.

To the extent that the debate is "capable white couple or capable black couple," the decision can admittedly be complicated and reasonable minds may disagree. But to the extent that the debate is "capable white couple or foster care," it's a slam dunk. Just as when the debate is "capable single person or foster care," there is really no debate at all.

So too, of course, when the debate is "capable gay couple or foster care" (or, worse, whether "capable gay couple" is an oxymoron, which is a question only a bigot could ask).