The Colorado Senate today gave a preliminary OK today to HB 1330, a bill that would allow second-parent adoption.
The Rocky Mountain News has the story:
A measure to allow gay couples to adopt won the Senate’s initial approval Wednesday, despite several lawmakers’ objections that the measure is a backdoor attempt to push the “homosexual agenda.”
“This is a remake of the homosexual agenda,” said Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley. “It’s not about protecting children. It is an attack on the traditional family. It undermines traditional marriage structure that we need to keep strong and sacred.”
The Senate approved the bill on a party-line voice vote, with Democrats arguing that the “Second Parent Adoption Bill” isn’t about promoting the gay agenda, but about protecting children being raised by an array nontraditional families.
House Bill 1330’s sponsor, Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, contends that same-sex couples, grandparents, aunts and uncles and other relatives have a hard time legally getting government benefits and providing health care coverage to children they’re raising because of Colorado’s existing adoption law, which allows only married couples or single parents to adopt.
“This is not about whether you should have a gay marriage,” said Veiga, the only openly gay lawmaker in the Colorado legislature. “It recognizes that there are different types of relationships out there. A number of people in those relationships have children, and what we’re saying is we’re not going to abandon those children.”
Colorado Confidential’s past coverage of the bill:
Gay Parents Exist, Legal Rights or Not
