Ohio Senator's Retort: Ban GOP Adoptions

by Jen Christensen, PlanetOut Network
Feb 24, 2006

One Ohio lawmaker has come up with a clever way to protest the introduction of an anti-gay adoption bill -- but Log Cabin Republicans might not appreciate it.

In a joking memo sent to his fellow Ohio Senate members Wednesday, outspoken liberal Sen. Robert Hagan seeks sponsors for a bill that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as their foster parents.

The memo suggests that "policymakers in Columbus have ignored this growing threat to our communities for far too long," and bases its solution on the Republican-backed legislation to ban LGBT parents from adopting or raising foster children.

"Credible research exists that strongly suggests that adopted children raised in Republican households, though significantly wealthier than their Democrat-raised counterparts, are more at risk for developing emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, an alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves, and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities, " Hagan wrote.

"In addition, I have spoken to many adopted children raised in Republican households who have admitted that 'Well, it's just plain boring most of the time,' " he wrote.

Rep. Ron Hood, the Asheville Republican who initiated the anti-gay adoption bill, had no comment.

Hood's anti-gay legislation is not actually expected to make it through this year. House Speaker Jon Husted, a Republican from Kettering and former adoptee, has said he won't bring it up for a vote.

Husted responded to Hagan's memo, saying that he was in fact raised by Democrats, but "I got to go to the secret meetings when I was growing up. That's how I knew they were going to tax me and take away my Second Amendment rights. That's why I became a Republican."

Hagan said his memo is meant to be taken as "tongue-in-cheek," but he hopes people get the very serious message behind his mockery of the bill.