Joy Behar Smacks Ukraine Over Gay Adoption

categories: International Gay Rights, LGBT Adoption, LGBT Celebrities, LGBT Entertainment

Published September 23, 2009 @ 02:57PM PT

Joy Behar

When Elton John announced that he and his partner wanted to adopt a 14-month-old HIV positive orphan named Lev from Ukraine, the world-renowned pop star was told by the country that he was (1) too gay, and (2) too old to adopt a baby. If that seems pretty effed up, it's because it is. And Joy Behar isn't going to let it slide by the international news circuit without taking her own gloves off.

Behar, co-host of The View and about to launch her own news-like TV show on a CNN affiliate, has a piece just utterly blasting the Ukranian government for not acting in the best interest of children. It's one of the best riffs out there on gay adoption bans, especially on the international scene. Behar's message for the Ukranian government? Children belong in homes, not in shoddy orphanages.

"Family doesn't mean a huddle of orphans sharing a few soiled mattresses," Behar writes. "it's not youth if you die of AIDS before you reach kindergarten, and wrestling over dinner scraps is not a sport."

Family means love and support, and two LGBT parents are equally as qualified to provide that as two straight parents. And that's just not coming from some liberal blogger or TV show host; it comes from the American Psychological Association, the National Adoption Center and the American Academy of Pediatrics -- to name a few of the professional organizations that support LGBT adoption.

As Behar writes, it's not LGBT adoption that hurts kids. It's growing up with no parents, because the Ukranian government (and let's not forget that Arkansas government) are too damn homophobic to put the best interests of a child ahead of their own bigoted, 14th century views.

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It's unjustified that Ukraine has a ban on adoption of children by LGBT couples. Children always deserve a nice home with loving parents and security, which committed LGBT couples can definitely bring. It's unfortunate that Elton John was denied of a child in Ukraine because he is gay, and that reason for denying the adoption is one of nonsense. However, it's good that the APA and the National Adoption Center support adoption by LGBT couples. Joy Behar is correct.

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 09/23/2009 @ 03:07PM PT
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Indeed...Prejudice and intollerance always invariably hurts children.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/23/2009 @ 06:52PM PT
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For the last 5 years our mission as a social enterprise in Ukraine has been focussed on the most needy, disabled children in what are described as 'Death Camps'

http://eng.maidanua.org/node/581

We've called on US Government for assistance to place ALL children in homes for a cost of what at the time was being spent every week in Iraq.

http://en.for-ua.com/analytics/2007/08/06/121201.html

http://en.for-ua.com/analytics/2007/08/09/110003.html

If there was as much media exposure of this as given to the actions of one celebrity, we might make more progress.

This story is far less about being gay and denied than it is of the battle for democracy and law over oligarch and corruption. Yuri Pavlenko is on the side defending children from exploitation few could bear to hear of.

http://en.for-ua.com/analytics/2006/10/05/144153.html

For those with HIV the outlook is similarly bleak. In spite of $240m funding to prevent it in the last few years, official rates of infection are at 1.61%. Sire Elton has befriended the heads of the ANTI AIDS organisation, Victor Pinkchuk and wife Elena Franchuk the daughter of deposed President Kutchma.

Mikhailo Syrota was the father of Ukraine's constitution when he told the following story. He died 5 months later in a road accident.

http://zik.com.ua/en/news/2008/03/26/130980

Posted by Jeff Mowatt on 09/23/2009 @ 11:30PM PT
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You cannot tell my rigid republican Bible Belt Friends this; but I think Gay parents make excellent parents. So many Children without loving homes, who need the love and nurturing environment so many Americans who crave to be parents can provide. Also, I think Adoption is way too expensive, even for heterosexual couples: eg. my separated husband and I, if we ever get back together once considered adoption for a short while in happier times, but found it very difficult and expensive process. SO much easier the natural way, but would be difficult for me with all my terrible medical problems, but that's life, right?

Posted by Rachel Russell on 10/05/2009 @ 03:05PM PT
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.