Supporters of a proposal to ban gays as foster, adoptive parents ramping up ‘gay agenda’ arguments as effort fails to gain traction

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Family Council wants to play the “gay agenda” card, but only on its terms.

The conservative group has made no secret of the fact that its proposed initiated act banning unmarried people who live together from becoming foster or adoptive parents is aimed at gays and lesbians.

But the group is turning up the volume as it seeks to duplicate the success it saw four years ago with a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. At a news conference last week, the group blasted “gay-friendly bureaucrats” and “gay activists.”

When the state announced plans to drop its policy banning cohabiting couples from becoming foster parents, the council accused officials of wilting because of “a few pro-gay groups.”

Though its initiated act would affect gay and straight alike, the council is increasingly focusing on its campaign as a battle between traditional families and gay-rights advocates.

The new push illustrates the disadvantage the group finds itself in less than a month before election day.

Gov. Mike Beebe handed the proposed act a new obstacle when he changed course and supported an end to the state’s 3-year-old practice of barring unmarried couples living together from serving as foster parents. Beebe, who had previously supported the prohibition, thinks the change is needed because of a lack of foster homes in the state.

Beebe’s change of heart isn’t just an endorsement of the act’s opposition. Coming from a governor who rarely steps out too far on controversial issues, the move amounts to his prediction that the proposed ban is going to fail at the polls.

The move took away one of the Family Council’s chief points — that the act duplicates state policy on foster homes — and the conservative group is now relying almost exclusively on the “gay agenda” argument.

Associations it tagged as pro-gay include the Arkansas chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Social Workers, both of which argued against a cohabitation ban.

Also tagged as gay activists were officials from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, an advocacy group with which the Arkansas Family Council has aligned itself as it fights a proposed state-run lottery.

Jerry Cox, the council’s president, said the advocacy group wasn’t wearing a “pro-gay mantle” at the time.

Opponents of the proposed act say the strategy shows that Cox’s group is failing to win on the policy argument of what’s the best environment for children.

“If they can’t win on issues, they’ll try to win on scare tactics,” said Debbie Willhite of Arkansas Families First, which is campaigning against the initiated act.

The Family Council is only willing to go so far with the tactic. After his group slammed Beebe’s Department of Human Services as being too sympathetic to gay rights activists, Cox said he didn’t believe Beebe himself was a “pro-gay” governor.

“I don’t know his heart. I don’t know where he stands. I haven’t talked to him and I haven’t seen enough actions on his part to make any judgments on that,” Cox said.

Cox acknowledged, however, that he hadn’t talked with the bureaucrats he was criticizing as “gay-friendly,” but said he was judging them based on the agency’s actions.

The biggest obstacle Cox faces in pushing the latest attack line is that 2008 is not 2004. Unlike the gay marriage ban four years ago, he doesn’t have the benefit of multiple states pushing for similar restrictions. And with a national financial crisis dominating headlines, social issues may not have the same cachet in November as they did four years ago.

Cox also is unwilling to overtly turn this issue into a referendum on homosexuality — at least for now. After a news conference last week, Cox was asked to explain what makes homosexuality bad, in his eyes.

“We don’t want to get into that. That’s not the issue that’s on the table here,” Cox said.

Pressed again, he responded: “If we need to have a news conference on what’s wrong with being gay, then we will.”