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By: RYAN LEE
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With the 2005 General Assembly session set to open Jan. 10, leading Republican
lawmakers in the state House indicated this week that a much-expected ban on gay
adoptions is not in the works.
“I am not aware of any legislation that has been introduced on that subject,”
state Rep. Glenn Richardson (R-Dallas) said Wednesday.
Richardson is expected to be elected House speaker when the legislature convenes
Monday.
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), expected to become the chair of
the powerful House Rules Committee, said he’s “not seen anything
like [a gay adoption ban].”
Ehrhart has sponsored legislation opposed by gay rights groups in the past.
State Sen. Bill Stephens (R-Canton), the Senate majority leader, did not respond
to interview requests by press time.
Debate over a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage dominated
last year’s legislative session. When the measure passed, putting it on
the ballot for Georgia voters, opponents of the ban predicted that conservatives
would take on gay adoptions next.
Georgians Against Discrimination, a coalition formed to oppose the amendment,
argued on its fliers and web site that the vaguely worded marriage ban would
itself jeopardize adoption by gays.
State Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates), the state legislature’s
only openly gay member and chair of Georgians Against Discrimination, declined
comment Wednesday.
Many gay organizations heightened their concerns after the Nov. 2 election,
when the marriage ban passed overwhelmingly and Republicans gained a majority
in the state House for the first time since Reconstruction, giving the GOP control
over both legislative chambers and the governor’s office.
Chuck Bowen, Georgia Equality’s new executive director, said this week
conservatives are convinced they have an anti-gay mandate from Georgia voters
after the marriage amendment passed with 76.2 percent of the vote.
“We understand that a bill is currently being drafted to be introduced
in the Senate to ban adoption of children by gays and lesbians,” Bowen
said in an e-mail interview Tuesday.
But other gay rights advocates said GOP leaders, now firmly ensconced in power,
may be reluctant to take on controversial social issues at the expense of fiscal
and other measures.
State Rep. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), former House majority whip, said discussions
about a gay adoption ban highlight the differences between the two dominant
wings of the Republican Party — socially conservative Republicans versus
those who would rather focus on business issues.
“I think those who are promoting the corporate agenda will try to avoid
[a gay adoption ban], and avoid looking like they’re obsessed on the gay
issue, even though some of them are obsessed with it,” said Orrock, an
outspoken critic of the gay marriage ban.
Larry Pellegrini, a veteran gay rights lobbyist at the state Capitol, agreed
that “on the back of the minds of the new [Republican] majority is the
fear that they could have problems with an overreach — there are many
who would respond to the argument that [a gay adoption ban] just goes too far.
“But when you have total control, it can be intoxicating, so we can’t
be sure what to expect from the Republicans,” Pellegrini said.
Mansell McCord, president of the gay Georgia Log Cabin Republicans, said those
fearing a gay adoption ban have hyped the issue more than those who might support
such a measure.
“I have not heard anything specific about a gay adoption ban, and it
seems talk about that originated from the gay community, I haven’t heard
the Republicans talk about it,” McCord said.
Richardson said the GOP’s top legislative priority is creating the state
budget, but “after our work on the budget is complete, there are many
issues important to Georgians that we will consider including taxes, civil justice
reform and education.”
One of the social issues expected to be debated during the upcoming 40-day legislative
session is Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed constitutional amendment that
would allow faith-based groups to receive state funding to deliver social services.
Churches and other faith-based groups are already allowed to compete for state
funding if they establish a non-profit entity within their operations. But Perdue
has said such funding was put in jeopardy by an October 2003 settlement between
the Georgia Department of Human Resources and a lesbian therapist who was fired
from the DHR-funded United Methodist Children’s Home because she did not
adhere to the home’s Christian beliefs.
Perdue first ...
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