Senator Mary Landrieu has this piece of adoption legislation called Children In Families First (CHIFF). If one takes a close look, it's really not "about the kids," which Landrieu and her crew are telling everyone. Rather, it's about bailing out the adoption agencies, which have fallen on hard times with the slow down of international adoption. (Landrieu has been cozy with the adoption industry lobby in DC for years.) CHIFF is essentially designed to open the floodgates for intercountry adoption despite recent news that indicate efforts shouldn't be about increasing the number of adoptions. Rather, efforts should perhaps be about creating resources and safeguards for adoptees who currently live in the US.
A significant number of international adoptees have been abused, neglected, and murdered by their adoptive parents.
Last year, Reuters reported on the practice of "rehoming," in which adoptive parents who decide not to parent their internationally adopted children put them into other homes through a wholly unregulated, online "marketplace" where anyone, individuals with a history of child abuse included, can become the new parents/guardians.
For years now, numerous international adoptees have been unable to obtain drivers licenses, passports, and visas and some have even been deported for petty crimes back to their country of origin.
And a growing body of research points to the need for an increase in mental health services for adoptees.
Here's the kicker. Landrieu, her team, and the adoption lobby are fully aware of all of this. So, the question is why? Why not fix the current problems facing international adoptees, "the kids," the very people CHIFF supposedly is about before bringing other children into the US? Why diss adoptees?
CHIFF is also whacky because it's keeping strange company. Landrieu and crew are actively recruiting endorsements from the most unlikely allies and then bragging about it.
A handful of individuals, including a well meaning and "nonthreatening" white adoptive parent, questioned on the CHIFF Facebook page the endorsements of Nunnelee and Forbes, especially considering the significant number of gay adoptees and gay adoptive parents. The CHIFF Facebook admin responded to the comments with condescension and/or deleted the comments altogether and repeatedly mentioned another talking point - that adding lawmakers like Nunnelee and Forbes demonstrated the diversity of support the bill has. Interestingly enough, the admin never acknowledged the role that gay adoptive parents have had on the lives of adoptees and the role that gay adoptees have in adoption.
With this in mind and the fact that another anti-gay marriage/parenting lawmaker (Michele Bachmann of Minnesota) signed on early, one has to wonder if CHIFF is anti-gay. That would be huge news, in particular for the growing gay adoptive parent community.
If CHIFF isn't anti-gay (the bill has the endorsement of LGBTQ friendly lawmakers like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota), what is Landrieu telling the likes of Nunnelee and Forbes, who would never in a million years support anything that would allow members of the gay community to adopt?
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