Despicable law
Kansas lawmakers voted early on the morning of May 4 to send a bill to the governor for signature that will allow the state to provide contracts and funding to private adoption agencies that discriminate by refusing to place children with LGBT families or anyone else whose lifestyle runs counter to their “religious beliefs.”
As a retired professional with years of experience in our community’s child welfare system and as a Jew who believes that government-sanctioned discrimination by faith-based organizations is extremely dangerous, I am deeply saddened by this move in our state.
I want to thank Joy Koesten (R-House District 28); Jan Kessinger (R-House District 20); and Brett Parker (R-House District 29) for their strong leadership in trying to prevent this travesty from occurring in Kansas. They fought long and hard to try to help our most vulnerable children and protect the rights of every family in our state.
As everyone who reads the Kansas City Star knows, the situation for children and teens in the Kansas child welfare system is harrowing — and getting worse. There were more than 7,200 children in out-of-home placements in our state in December 2017, up 43 percent from five years ago. Last year, 108 kids slept in the offices of child welfare agencies, because no in-home beds could be found. There are more than 400 children in Kansas registered on the Adoption Exchange with no identified adoptive resource.
In the face of these appalling statistics, our state needs every safe, appropriate family who is willing to take in foster children and to adopt these kids into safe, loving homes. Horrifyingly, there are religious agencies that would rather see these children languish in foster care than allow LGBT individuals and couples the opportunity to care for them. And now, the state of Kansas will be able to provide contracts and funding to these discriminatory agencies.
It is not a stretch to imagine one day these same agencies will decide that Jewish individuals and couples are not “religiously appropriate” to foster and adopt. Or families who have faced divorce. Or are inter-racial. We should be very concerned about allowing our state to fund agencies that choose to discriminate on any basis.
Please join me in supporting Joy Koesten, Jan Kessinger and Brett Parker, elected officials who fought against this despicable outcome. They will face challengers in the Republican primary and they need to be re-elected. And let’s vow together to continue to fight for our community’s abused and neglected children and those who are willing to help them.
Martha Gershun
Retired Executive Director
Jackson County CASA
(Court Appointed Special
Advocates)
