Panel weighs pros, cons of gay adoption

Gayle Ruzicka, conservative leader of Utah's Eagle Forum, usually isn't short of political allies but Thursday night she found few friends at the City Library downtown, where Mayor Rocky Anderson hosted his second freedom forum — this one centering on gay adoption.

Many of those who showed for the forum were from the city's gay community, who want the adoption rights they are denied by state law. In Utah, gay couples can rear children, but partners cannot rise above the legal definition of "guardian" to the status of father or mother.

A five-member panel, including Ruzicka, gay attorney Scott McCoy and three gay parents — all rearing children — discussed the volatile issue as part of Anderson's freedom forum series.

Ruzicka told the crowd that placing kids in gay households would deny them either a mother or a father. Moms and dads provide different needs for children, she said.

"A second female cannot provide fathering and a second male cannot provide mothering," she said. "If you send a child into a home with two fathers, that child will forever not have a mother. If you send a child into a home with two mothers, that child will forever not have a father."

But Ruzicka's stance brought panelist Chris Johnson's 12-year-old daughter, who has two moms, to tears.

"I want to know what problems she thinks we have suffered by being in these caring and loving homes," she said . McCoy said there are many studies showing homosexuals are as good at rearing kids as heterosexuals. But Ruzicka said there are similarly many studies that show children are better served with both a mom and dad.

Many speakers said the state's foster care system is overrun with children who need families, even gay families. Johnson said studies have shown gay and lesbians are more apt to adopt children who are not infants and ones who might have physical or health issues.

For a long time gay couples could adopt children in Utah. However, the Utah State Legislature passed a law in 2000 outlawing adoptions for unmarried couples.

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