THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18,2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
▼ GUEST COMMENTARY
PAGE 5A
It's about time to adopt a new stance
Lisa Johnston, a graduate with a degree in Human Development and Family Life with a special emphasis on child development and currently working for Head Start, was denied the right to adopt any of the 1,900+ children needing a parent in Missouri.
Was she unqualified?
No, the judge found her exceptionally qualified before he denied her.
Was she in a bad relationship? No, her partner holds a master's degree in counseling from St. Mary's University and a master's degree in divinity from Luther Seminary and is currently a chaplain at a psychiatric treatment center for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders.
What could have possibly led the state of Missouri to bar her from adopting a child?
It was solely because she is a lesbian. The decision was based in part on Missouri law that banned sexual intimacy between same-sex couples that was rendered unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas.
Yet the Missouri government still turned her away as
JUSTIN LA MORT opinion@kansan.com
"Decades of research show that gays and lesbians are as good as parents as their heterosexual counterparts... The truth may be out there, but not everyone seems to be listening."
hundreds of children are in need of a good parent.
Lisa Johnston is just one example of how law based on ignorance hurts us all.
She will be trying to change that by challenging the case in court but it leads us to wonder why that law ever would be created.
Decades of research show that gays and lesbians are as
good as parents as their heterosexual counterparts.
The American Psychiatric Association states that, "Not a single study has found children of gay or lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents."
The truth may be out there but not everyone seems to be listening.
During the summer, several Kansas legislators started a movement to follow Missouri's pitiful example and stop gays from adopting.
Sen. Kay O'Connor of Olathe said that people who were openly having a homosexual lifestyle were probably not good candidates for adoptive parents.
This senseless and harmful institutional intolerance needs to end today.
I urge you to join with KU ACLU and Queers & Allies in fighting ignorance by writing a letter to your state representatives telling them that this injustice and ignorance must stop now.
*La Mort is Cherryvale senior in psychology and president of KU ACLU.
Doug Lang/KANSAN
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Call 864-0500
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Who do I need to talk to get C & C Dance Factory to play a free concert at KU?
Bill Self needs to recruit us a quarterback.
For the love of God, start Marcus Herford.
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Here's how the Mencia thing works: If you think he's vulgar, a racist and a misogynist, then don't go see him! If you think the Kansan is full of typos, don't read it! They're just journalism students, you miserable prick.
And if Maiinda Osborne can say "count" in her article,
then you can print "prick" in the Free for All.
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I find it odd that Haskell got Columbus Day off and we didn't.
Who do you have to blow to get in Free for All?
So, this weekend at K-State, I definitely feel like I molested a guy because he fell asleep while we were making out but I kept making out with him. Is that weird?
I just played poker with four people that read the paper all the time, but not a single one of them knew what the Free for All was. Am I stuck in some kind of Twilight Zone episode?
Nor is it pre-marital sex if you are married to someone else.
I call shotgun!
I make car parts for the American working man because that's what I am, and that's who I care about.
Does anyone in the Athletics Department even have a brain?
To the idiot who stole my wallet with no money in it,
not only are you a jackass for stealing my wallet,
but you are still poor like me.
It's 2.01 p.m. and I have no clue where my children are.
Everybody watch out for the cop that sitting in front of the Towers with his radar gun.
Goodbye America, hello Texas.
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I think fat people should have to buy two seats on the bus. I just spent 15 minutes sitting on half a seat because a fat girl sat next to me.
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Only a fool would not understand Steven Levy's comedy!
Jerry, where you at? I been waiting for 30 minutes.
I've been at KU for 5 glorious years and I remember when Free for All used to be good, not just a forum for GDIs and greks to bitch at each other! Green jacket, gold jacket, who gives a crap? Put something good in there! Editor's note: Yeah, your 9-year-old Adam Sandler movie quote is cutting-
edge con
You know, I'm sitting here chewin' some Big League Chew, and I think the guy on the package would test positive for steroids. The MLB should check that out.
I want to be a Playboy bunny! You should put in parentheses, This caller was a guy, or something like that to be funny. Or like, well I don't know, do whatever. It's your call, Free for All.
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Tara Reid is saving herself for me.
Dude, Tara Reid is saving herself for my roommate.
Does Free for All make as money
as Shaq did in college?
I made you a... uh... a... I'll call you back in a minute.
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Now I remember, I made you guys a fan club on facebook.com and you still don't show me any love. You should be ashamed of yourself.
This is for the guy in the red sweatshirt in the library tonight looking at porn. You know what, I'm not all about that. I don't know why you were looking at it, but put the vaginas away and open up a real book.
Everyone who is for Lawrence Counter Recruitment should move to Iraq.
(Some kind of rock organ playing in the background)
Something weird happened to me when I was high earlier. Oh man, it's happening again!
Guy 1: One of my friends has the hiccups and it's adorable. Oh, and where's Striving for Mediocrity?
It was better than half the comics and...
Guy 2: All the comics!
Guy 1: Yeah, it's better than all the comics!
Wait...dude, that's not going to make it in.
My love goes out to Alpha Delta Pi for their loss. Love, a former Alpha Delta Pi.
Superman would take Batman any day! Except the day that Batman had kryptonite.
First of all, what is Rhombus House?
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Place blame where blame is due
Ms. Pflaum,
Shifting spending is irrelevant because it will still be taxpayer money spent. After the disastrous failure of the federal government to maintain the canals, why would you seek to further depend on them?
The aging canals were common knowledge to the city, but not the nation.
How could you expect someone from Kansas to elect their federal representative based upon their support for SELA? The people of New Orleans had the knowledge of the problem and the benefit of living there, but you would hold others financially responsible who had neither of these.
rebuilding my house when it burns down, or should I bear the responsibility for fire-proofing my house and purchasing insurance?
Finally, you shouldn't comment on my refusal to help when you know nothing of my charitable contributions.
If I choose to live in an area prone to forest fires, should you bear the responsibility of
John Stowell Kansas City, Kan.
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We must know when to draw the line between taxes and charity
Because Ms. Robson asked to an explanation as to why it is OK for students to rely on government handouts, here it is. I have two main objections to the relief situation as it played out, one governmental and the other social.
To compare the hurricane relief situation to my education is utterly asinine and altogether arbitrary. First, to suggest that I receive hand-outs for matriculating at the university is a bit of an overstatement.
Ms. Robson is probably not aware that, so far this year, I have paid approximately $88 out of my own pocket (not including the $400 I spent on books or what I will spend next semester), that I will end up borrowing $3,500 this year or that I am a recipient of the Summerfield Scholarship (which is privately funded) and actually receive no direct need-based financial aid.
PFLAUM'S ARTICLE
These two pieces are responses to a letter to the editor by Laurie Plaum entitled "Easy to criticize, hard to understand" that was published in the Oct. 7 edition of The University Daily Kansan. It can be found online at http://www.kansan.com/stories/2005/oct07/easy_criticize_hard_understand/
As for Ms. Pflaum, she is right to
Finally, she clearly does not know that, as productive citizens of Kansas, my parents pay their fair share in taxes. A charity that charges one in the range of $9,000 to $12,000 per year must be the kind that only a politician could dream up.
If that were so, I would really be a horrible person. The point is that if the money is being pulled out of my pockets, it really is not the same as if I pull it out of my own pocket.
I am fine with the thought of the government rebuilding the levees, fixing the bridges and repairing the roads, because that is what govern-
say that I cannot understand what that experience must have been like. Truthfully, I am not altogether certain I want to understand it. But, that being said, my position was not born out of an unwillingness to help.
I am not fine with the federal government telling people that it can provide for their every need during a disaster, because it cannot. If the government was not there to botch the job, charities and churches and other organizations that could actually do it right would be there to help.
ments do. I am not fine, however, with the federal government stepping in to say that it is fine if you build your house 10 feet below sea level because FEMA's flood insurance will pay for your risk.
Ms. Pfluaim supports my point.
She says she is lucky to have her friends, her family and her city. She does not say that she is lucky to have her federal government.
In the end, we need to recognize that some things are societal matters and others are governmental.
Unfortunately too many people do not understand this distinction between society and government because they have come to worship and rely upon their government instead of their God.
- Andrew Soukup
Lakin junior in linguistics.
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