Conceiving Family

Watershed Productions recently released a new documentary film entitled “Conceiving Family", which is gaining great acclaim as it starts to make the film festival circuit.

Conceiving Family follows (Director/Producer) Amy Bohigian and her partner, Jane Byers, as they adopt biracial 15 month-old twins, Franny and Theo. Their journey to becoming a family, like the other four same-sex couples, is laden with challenges, including confronting the Christian Fundamentalist foster parents who express fear that the children they’ve cared for since birth will now, “grow up to be gay” with parents who are “going to hell for their sins.” Required to live together for two weeks during the kids’ transition they confront their differences in the most surprising ways. Combining personal interviews, intimate footage, and family photos, Conceiving Family tells the collective story of what it takes to become an intentional family.

Conceiving Family Trailer from Amy Bohigian on Vimeo.

Florida, Banning Gays From Being Foster Parents Is Unconstitutional

I used to live in Florida. I lived in Fort Walton Beach (near Destin). I was married and a foster mom to lots and lots of babies and toddlers. Each one as precious as the last and all from a variety of problematic homes. Some were born with drugs in their system. Some were born in jail or to a mother who had previously lost other children due to abuse or neglect. One was a product of a worker raping her mentally retarded mother in an institution. The one thing that was the same: there were lots of them and the steady stream of children needing care only grew.

There was never a week that went by where I didn't get a phone call from a social worker begging me to take on another. This despite the fact that I was only licensed for 1 child at a time. But sometimes, I might have 3 of them along with my own 2 children.

Why would the state have such a problem? Because of their backwards policy of banning homosexuals from being foster parents. Yes, if you are gay, you can't be a foster parent in Florida (as well as some other states).

Well, poo on you, Florida. Because I was gay (albeit married to a dude at the time) and I made a kick ass foster parent. I didn't even complain at the .50 per hour that you paid for the child's food, clothing, toys, blankets, and other necessities. I didn't complain when I had a new caseworker each week. I didn't complain when you gave me 30 minutes notice about a court hearing. I didn't complain getting up at 2, 4 and 6 am for newborn feedings. I didn't complain when I had to drive a baby over an hour to Pensacola to see his parents because my male social worker was scared of the father.

I was a shining beacon among foster mothers and I was gay. And so are a lot of other foster parents who have proven that being gay has nothing to do with your ability to love, nurture and care for children. I even have a theory that gays might be better at it because we know what it's like to live in a world full of strife, rejection and drama.

But - the times, they are a changin'. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman declared today that Florida's 50-year-old ban on gay adoptions is quite unconstitutional - a ruling state lawyers immediately said they would challenge.

In a 53-page ruling, Judge Lederman said, "It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent.''

Duh.

It's about time Florida started putting the kids first.