"Natural family structures are proven to be the best social structure for raising children, accomplishing life goals, and being self-sufficient," said the good Christians at Liberty Counsel, an SPLC-designated anti-gay hate group, when they launched their Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father Campaign. So the folks at Liberty Counsel will be delighted to know that a lesbian couple in Iowa was forced to return a newborn baby boy that they had hoped to adopt to the child's natural, biological, opposite-sex mom and dad. Ralph Reed and Franklin Graham will also be thrilled. This little baby is truly in the best of all possible homes: with his biological mom and dad! And little Gabriel will grow up to accomplish all of his life goals and achieve total self-sufficiency... or little Gabriel would've grown up to do all that... if little Gabriel were still alive:
A teenage father was in police custody Wednesday and charged with neglect in connection with the death of a 4-month-old boy. Police said 17-year-old Drew James Wheeler-Smith could face more charges pending the outcome of the child’s autopsy.... According to police, the child’s father came over around 7:30 p.m. to care for the child while his mother ran an errand. Around 8:20 p.m., Gabriel’s mother, 16-year-old Markeya Atkins found her son unresponsive in his glider chair with white foam around his mouth.... The child’s death hits close to home for a family in Ankeny, Iowa. Heidi McFarland said she and her partner took Gabriel home from the hospital in the first step in what they hoped would be a smooth adoption process. The couple said they were forced to return Gabriel to his birth mother days before signing the final adoption papers.
Like I said on Slog when Liberty Counsel launched their latest anti-gay hate campaign...
Don't get me wrong: mothers and fathers can be great. I had a mother and a father and they were awesome parents to all four of their kids. But making sure that parents come with mix-matched sets of genitalia—making it a legal requirement for a couple to become parents (which is what the Liberty Counsel seeks to do)—does not guarantee that children will be safe and loved. Having gay parents, as we've seen here in Seattle, is no guarantee either. Children need loving, fit, qualified, sane, and—speaking from experience here—infinitely patient parents. Fit and loving parents can be gay or straight or bi, single or partnered, rich or poor, liberal or conservative, trans or cis, kinky or vanilla, monogamous or monogamish. If mix-matched sets of genitals, a.k.a. "natural parents," was all it took, Liberty Counsel, then Montana, Zachary, and Brandon would still be alive.
And so would Gabriel.
