Modern family: Voice actor McGonnigal and partner Carlson started petition. Photo: Jamie McGonnigal
Two gay dads have started a petition calling on the US Republican party scrap an amendment to a bill that could discriminate against LGBTI families looking to adopt or foster children.
Amendment could threaten LGBTI rights in the US, just as more same-sex couples are choosing to become parents.
Adoptive parents Jamie McGonnigal and Sean Carlson started the petition this week. So far, more than 26,000 people have signed it.
The amendment relates to a funding bill for the Departments for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Congressman Robert Aderholt was behind the amendment.
If passed it would allow adoption agencies to reject any potential applicants that conflict with an agency’s ‘religious beliefs or moral convictions’, Q Voice News reported.
Threat to LGBTI parents: Calls for Rep. Robert Aderholt to scrap amendment. Photo: Wikipedia
Gay dads challenge Aderholt to meet with them
‘I challenge Rep. Aderholt to come to sit across from us at our dinner table and tell us that we aren’t qualified to be parents,’ Carlson said.
‘As prospective parents, every aspect of our lives and qualifications were evaluated before taking on this enormous responsibility’, he explained.
‘If this bill comes to pass, we could be eliminated before ever being considered, just because of who we are and who we love’.
However, the House Appropriations Committee approved the amendment earlier this month, in a 29-23 vote. Only one Republican, Scott Taylor, voted against it.
‘The amendment is bad for prospective parents and bad for vulnerable children who need homes,’ said Ryan Thoreson at Human Rights Watch.
‘Congress should make it easier, not harder, for children to find loving, qualified families ready to take them in.’
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