Another small victory in the struggle

This is from about two weeks ago but I just learned about it through the ACLU website.

Finding that children are not harmed by living with gay or lesbian parents, an Arkansas court today struck down a state regulation that banned gay people and anyone living in a household with a gay adult from being foster parents in the state.

The decision was the result of a four-year court fight conducted by the ACLU on behalf of three prospective foster parents: A single lesbian, a gay couple, and a straight couple whose 18-year old gay son sometimes stays with them. After listening to a case filled with expert testimony,

Circuit Court Judge Timothy Fox flatly rejected many of the claims the state had made about gay and lesbian people's suitability as parents. ...

Among Judge Fox's findings of fact:

- Being raised by gay parents doesn't increase the risk of psychological, behavioral, or academic problems for children.
- Children of lesbian and gay parents are just as well adjusted as children of straight parents.
- There is no factual basis for saying that heterosexual parents might be better able to guide children through adolescence than gay parents.
- There are no reasons that health, safety, or welfare of a foster child might be negatively impacted by living in a foster home where there is a gay person present.

And he ruled that the "blanket exclusion" of gays and lesbians - or even of households in which any adult member is gay or lesbian - was "not rationally related to the legitimate state interest" of protecting either the health, welfare, or safety of foster children.

One thing I found noteworthy in the decision, available here, is Judge Fox's opinion as to the credibility of the experts brought forth to testify, particularly that he regarded the one witness who claimed homosexuality should be a bar to foster parenting as the least credible among them, as someone who

was there primarily to promote his own ideology. If the furtherance of such ideology meant providing the court with only partial information or selectively analyzing study results that was acceptable to Dr. Rekers.

ACLU staff attorney Leslie Cooper called the decision "a victory not only for gay families, but for the many children in the Arkansas foster care system who now have a better shot at finding a good home." We will undoubtedly hear, if we hear about this case at all, about "activist judges making law" and all the rest of that crap. What we should be prepared to fire back is that both sides had a clear shot to present their best evidence - and your side, the bigoted side, melted in the heat of fact. Your side had its chance to make its case and it turned out it didn't have a case to make. So shut up.