Fraud Squad! Roundup

In a meeting, I got a phone call from my bank about potentially fraudulent transactions on my credit card. Had I recently ordered $50 worth of fast food pizza? No, I hadn't -- and so the account is frozen, and presumably the charges will be reversed.

An hour later, upon returning to my desk, I had the bizarre joy of seeing a confirmation from Domino's promising me that my "pizza is on the way [to Houston, Texas]!"

Anyway, long story short: I'm getting pizza for dinner tonight.

* * *

Jenny Singer of the Forward interviews Young Gravy, a Black Jewish rapper (and GW student). It's a really interesting and worth your time (I'm saying that not just because I think I played a role in putting the interview together!).

I think I missed this when it came out, but a Texas court struck down the Indian Child Welfare Act's adoption rules this past fall, saying that act's preferences for Indian children to stay with Indian families was racially discriminatory against non-Indians. The Judge, incidentally, was Reed O'Connor -- the same guy who just struck down Obamacare. He's certainly setting himself up as the go-to-guy for tip-of-the-spear conservative judicial activism.

Alabama was all set to execute a Muslim inmate -- but refused to allow a Muslim chaplain to be present with him during the execution (they did offer a Christian chaplain, which unsurprisingly the inmate did not consider to be a satisfactory substitute). 11th Circuit stays the execution due to the "powerful Establishment Clause claim" (and plausible RLUIPA claim). Alabama is appealing to the Supreme Court.

A new poll finds that over half of Israeli Jews agree that the controversial "nation-state" law must be either abandoned outright or fixed to confirm the state's commitment to democratic equality for all citizens.

A Cameroonian official has apologized for threatening an ethnic minority group by comparing them to Jews in pre-WWII Germany, namely: "In Germany, there was a very rich community who wielded all economic power .... They (the Jews) were so arrogant that the German people were frustrated. Then one day, a certain Hitler came to power and put them in the gas chambers."

I have no takeaways from the Likud primaries except celebrating Oren Hazan's imminent departure from the Knesset. Goooood riddance.

Iraqi Jews commemorate family members who were "disappeared" by state secret police.

Primary Editor Roundup

I'm becoming a villain. Not sure how I feel about that.

* * *

Arkansas keeps on trying to ban gay people from adopting children. Their latest effort has been struck down as unconstitutional, and the state attorney general doesn't sound enthused about appealing.

A suicide bomber hit a refugee camp in Pakistan. The attack was apparently retaliation by Sunni terrorists after Shi'ite villagers killed two women for cnverting from Shi'ite to Sunni Islam.

...And now Merrick Garland is extreme, apparently for not wanting to burn the papers of Justice Harry Blackmun.

Two bad tastes which go poorly together: A dude affiliated with the ZOA is trying to convince Jews to go for Palin. Good luck.

Well, this is one way to get folks to read their contract language.

You may have come across a story claiming that former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview that "the Israeli occupation only understands the language of violence" and endorsing terrorism. The piece, which was purportedly sourced to the UPI, is almost definitely fake; the source is actually Iran's Press TV and Hamas' website.

Local Judge Strikes Down Florida's Gay Adoption Ban

It's a circuit judge in Key West, so it doesn't have state-wide applicability, but a judge has just ruled that Florida's gay adoption ban violates the state constitution. The law had previously survived, incorrectly in my view, a federal constitutional challenge.

Judge David J. Audlin Jr. wrote in his ruling, which has not yet been formally published, that the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

"Contrary to every child welfare principle," Audlin wrote, "the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that ... it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual."

Since even the most rabid academic opponents of gay adoption concede that blanket bans are inadvisable, it is tough to criticize this ruling. Congratulations to (parts of) Florida, for this great step forward in the journey towards human equality.

Via Cogitamus.

Civil Rights Roundup: 07/22/08

Your daily dose of civil rights and related news

The ACLU is seeking to overturn Alabama's voter disenfranchisement law.

The Boston Globe calls on the state to restrict unequal retirement plans that pay women less than men.

Online adoption business discriminates against gay couples.

John McCain: Anti-contraception.

16 years after "the year of the women", women still account for less than 25% of legislators. PS: Barbara Mikulski, still a BAMF.

Research shows: discrimination still quite present in the lending and credit industries.

The Houston Chronicle is livid over how immigrants were treated after a raid on a meatpacking plant.

Is California ready to vote for a gay-rights governor (Arnold, apparently, doesn't count).

A Michigan report says that obese workers are as effective as thin ones. Michigan bans weight discrimination.

A tremendous backlog still exists for testing rape evidence.

As troop levels drop, Democrats are getting more aggressive about repealing DADT.

A South Carolina town is looking to initiate its own crackdown on illegal immigrants. Th bill failed the council by one vote -- one councilman said he had a hang up about the law's "English only" policy.

7th Circuit: termination due to infertility treatments is sex discrimination. The case is Hall v. Nalco Co..

Is my (barely paid) internship exploiting me?

Civil Rights Roundup: 07/16/08

Your daily dose of civil rights and related news

Is our natural inclination when seeing others in distress indifference?

Montgomery County, Maryland just became America's first jurisdiction to pass a law protecting the workplace rights of nannies.

Immigrant students in college (here legally, I might add), face severe harassment and discrimination on campus. The focus, unfortunately (since I rather like the state), is on Somali students at the University of Minnesota.

The US might finally lift its ban on HIV-positive immigrants.

The Wall Street Journal has another one of those really dumb editorials trying to claim the GOP is the better party on race because it historically was anti-slavery. Everyone knows the facts on this: In the 19th and early 20th century, Republicans were primarily the civil rights party, and Democrats were primarily against it. Starting with FDR, the Democrats began moving left-ward on race issues, causing a division with the southern, Jim Crow wing of the party. Eventually, those people left for the GOP, who welcomed them with open arms. And that's where we're at today. This is not that complicated.

McCain waffles clarifies his stance on gay adoptions.

Massachusetts will allow out of state gay couples to marry after repealing a 1913 law originally designed to limit interracial marriages.

Black and Hispanic state troopers are suing the state police force, alleging discrimination and cronyism.

Facebook ads for women basically just tell them they're fat and ugly. My girlfriend noticed this, which is why I'm currently "in a relationship" with a person of indeterminate gender.

Women, take note: You wouldn't want your employer think about your vast amounts of experience if that means keeping your hair gray.

BBC: Muslim woman denied citizenship in France, on the grounds that she is insufficiently assimilated (actually, that does strike me as very French).

The Justice Department has filed a discrimination suit against a condo association accused of refusing to sell to a Black couple with children.

I blogged on this topic once before, but now the NYT takes it on: child brides resisting their forced marriages in Yemen (and winning too!).

Finally, who told this "joke"?

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’

Why, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, that's who!

Color-Conscious Adoption

CNN has a neat article up on the request by several major adoption-advocacy groups for the US to adopt more "color-conscious" policies regarding adoption. The current "color-blind" approach, which prohibits race play any consideration in deciding who the ultimate adoptive parents are, and also prohibits any special training for parents who are undergoing a trans-racial adoption, was designed to help reduce the inequality by which Black children languished in foster care for far longer than their White peers. The agencies want at least some consideration to be made encouraging same-race adoption (not a rule, just a preference), and, more importantly in my view, want to enact special training for parents adopting a child of another race.

A few years ago, I was at a meeting at the Black Student Union at Carleton where this precise issue was discussed. In fact, one of the students' parents worked at an adoption organization that specifically grappled with the issues of trans-racial adoption, and was very clear that it poses special problems under which parents might need a helping hand. One illustrative example, precisely because it is so mundane, has to do with hair-washing. The student mentioned that Black hair doesn't need to be washed everyday -- in fact, to do so is bad for the hair. Most people in the room (who were Black) nodded knowingly, but I was surprised -- it simply never occurred to me that hair-washing regimes would differ for straight versus kinky hair. And then he continued, as if he was talking about some exotic people, "apparently, White people need to wash there hair everyday," and now it was the Black students who looked surprised. It's no knock on any of us -- when's the last time you've thought to ask someone about how often they wash their hair? -- but it does illustrate the fact that there are things even well-meaning, engaged parents might need to be told with regards to trans-racial adoption.

The bigger problem particularly for White parents adopting Black children is getting them prepared to handle their child facing racism. Most Whites underestimate the amount of racism in the world, but having a Black child offers a rude awakening on that score. Knowing how to respond and give support to the child is absolutely essential, and is not something that necessarily comes naturally to White folks who do not experience racism daily.

All that being said, I recognize that there are dangers in raising screening requirements and onerous training burdens, and these shouldn't be overlooked. I merely want to raise the fact that these topics aren't as simple as we'd like, and problematize this lovely, idealistic notion that color-blind policy solves all ills.

What the Science Says

My post on marriage and language sparked a stellar debate with "Sally" in comments over a wide gamut of issues concerning gay rights. It concluded when I agreed to read some of the critical evaluations of the scientific evidence I had been heavily relying on. Specifically, I decided to read Brigham Young Law Professor Lynn Wardle's article "The Potential Impact of Homosexual Parenting on Children" (1997 U. Ill. L. Rev. 833). While I think he scored some points, ultimately I found his critique unpersuasive. Allow me to explain why.

First of all, I think Professor Wardle made a valuable addition to the literature in this article. We shouldn't accept scientific "findings" unquestioned, and Sally was absolutely right when she reminded me to be particularly cautious when said findings uphold our own deeply held beliefs. The other important thing to note is what Professor Wardle is not arguing: he does not believe that homosexuals should be excluded as a class from adopting or gaining custody over children. In addressing two arguments for allowing homosexual adoption of children, that "public policy should encourage formation of families, even nontraditional same-sex parenting families, because two parents (even of the same gender) are better than one," and "parenting by an adult who is engaged in a homosexual relationship may be the best option for a particular child," he admits that these

two policy arguments are variations of a common theme - that in the world we live in, persons who engage in extramarital sexual relations, including homosexual relations, may, in some cases, provide the best available parenting alternative for particular children. This argument recognizes that all parents are imperfect and acknowledges the tremendous failures of the alternatives to parenting (e.g., the abuse of institutional care, the limbo of foster care, and the tragedies of other governmental substitutes for in-home parenting, the disadvantages of single-parenting). It is hard to disagree that, despite the possible harms children may suffer from the extramarital sexual behavior, including homosexual behavior, of their parents, if the best interests of children is followed in all cases, there undeniably will be, and have been, some cases in which a parent engaged in extramarital sexual behavior will offer, and has provided, the least detrimental practical parenting alternative.

Thus, this article does not quarrel with the last two principles above or that there are and will be in this imperfect world exceptional cases in which less-than-ideal parents and less-than-perfect custody and adoption arrangements are the best options for a particular child or children. (842-43)

I do disagree with Wardle's rhetoric on the matter. Given the state of our adoption system, I doubt such "imperfect" cases are all that "extraordinary," nor do I feel that, even if there homosexuality is an "imperfection," it would constitute a negative factor more grievous than many other more typical negative factors that afflict heterosexual families. I also think it is facile to group a monogamous homosexual relationship in the same category as extramarital sexual behavior. Though technically this is accurate, it is a product of legal rules beyond the control of the parties (many whom would surely marry if given the chance). I hardly think the same harms apply to children in families with extramarital affairs as with those living in families with committed homosexual affairs (which yes, are technically "extramarital"). This conflation is a critical flaw throughout Wardle's article, but we'll get there later. Suffice to say, Wardle does not advocate categorical exclusion for homosexuals gaining custody of children (as is being advocated in Texas, was the subject of the Howard decision in Arkansas, and remains the law in Florida), but rather a rebuttable presumption against them, and a relatively weak one at that:

States should adopt a rebuttable presumption that ongoing homosexual relations by an adult seeking or exercising parental rights is not in the best interest of a child. The presumption should be rebuttable by a mere preponderance of the evidence. Unless rebutted, this presumption should be considered as one of the many nonexclusive "best interests of the child" factors that are weighed by courts deciding parenting issues. This presumption should apply in any case involving significant parental relationship with the child, including custody, adoption, and visitation.

It was also distressing to see Professor Wardle quote the profoundly discredited Dr. Paul Cameron. I do not know the credentials of most scientific experts opining on this issue; my default setting is to assume they are credible unless shown otherwise (for both sides). Dr. Cameron, however, is someone I do recognize as basically an ideological hack, kicked out of the APA and condemned by the ASA for consistently misrepresenting sociological research. Although Wardle only cited Cameron six times, it still reflected poorly on his judgment as a researcher and scholar.

Wardle does score some points when criticizing methodological flaws in the pro-equality research. Part of this, I feel, is due to the small availability of subjects--there just aren't that many homosexual parents available to study. More generally, however,

"the types of methodological flaws that Wardle discusses in his article (such as small sample sizes and lack of diversity in the samples) are by no means limited to the study of gay and lesbian families. [...]producing a representative probability sample can be expensive and difficult. Respondents chosen randomly will typically be diffused across the entire area inhabited by the population, rather than concentrated in areas easy for the researcher to access...
[...]
[furthermore,] there are ongoing efforts to address some of the methodological problems noted by Professor Wardle." [Carlos A. Ball, Janice Farrell Pea, "Warring With Wardle: Morality, Social Science, and Gay and Lesbian Parents," 1998 U. Ill. L. Rev. 253, 274-76]

As Wardle's article is from 1997, I'd assume there have been some advances in the literature which may shed light on these questions (any links to them would be greatly appreciated).

However, while some of his accusations are legitimate, some of the objections are rather silly. Wardle says that many of the homosexual families studied were "model" families, well-educated, upper middle class, with stable incomes, while "poor...uneducated, or troubled" homosexuals are left out. However, the point of these studies is to determine whether or not homosexuals, in absence of other disabilities which might affect their ability to be good parents, are possessed of inherent problems which might disable them from adopting or gaining custody over children. In this respect, it makes more sense to try and isolate the variable and eliminate other factors which are not unique to homosexual families at all (IE, "troubled" persons are likely to have issues with children regardless of their sexual orientation).

One consistent and problematic aspect of Wardle's critique is his constant conflation of homosexuality with another, unrelated relational issue. For example, he writes that:

Finally, it is reasonable to be concerned that ongoing parental homosexual sexual behavior is harmful to children because that seems to be the lesson of the most relevant and analogous human experience - the experience of extramarital sexual relations generally. (855)

But as I wrote above, this analogy isn't relevant at all--and it's Wardle who inadvertently indicates why:

Extramarital sexual behavior is associated with such harm to children as the breakup of their parents' marriage and the destabilizing, child-harming consequences of divorce. Parental extramarital relationships wound children, shaking, sometimes even destroying, their faith in marriage and in personal commitments of fidelity and intimacy. It hurts a child to learn that one parent has been unfaithful to the other. That pain is very real and very wrenching. Parental extramarital relationships also provide a dangerous model for children, serving to pass intergenerational self-destructive behavior on to children. The message of intergender and intergenerational carelessness, and family-sacrificing selfishness not only hurts, but also may have a programming effect on children. The lesson of sexual self-gratification at the expense of familial fidelity conveys a tragic message about both family commitments and responsible sexual behavior in our society. In these days of so many harmful, even deadly, sexually transmitted diseases, the risks may be physical as well as emotional. (855-56)

Not a single one of these problems apply to committed and monogamous homosexual relationships which a) do not break up a marriage, b) do not undermine the principles of loyalty and commitment c) do not provide a dangerous model for children (except, perhaps, insofar as they legitimize homosexuality, which would be a circular argument) d) are not any more "selfish" than any other committed relationship and e) do not have any raised risks of STDs. Of course it is true that for unfaithful homosexual couples, these issues do come into play--but then, they also come into play for unfaithful heterosexual couples. I would argue that the legal system already has the tools to evaluate and dispose of these cases.

He makes a similar slight of hand when talking about the need for dual-gender parenting. Virtually all of his research is a comparison to single-parent homes, not dual-parent homosexual homes. This is critical for several reasons. First of all, much of his argument focuses on issues are more acutely felt by single-parent homes than two-parent homosexual homes, but are theoretically overcomable, such as time availability and economic wherewithal. Second, there are inherent problems within single-parent homes that simply don't exist in homosexual houses--not that he doesn't try and connect them.

But the significance of the disadvantage of growing up without both father and mother in the home should not be trivialized, either, especially in this difficult time of our social history. Individually, the child must cope with the loss of example, counsel, and experience that living with the missing-gender parent would have provided, and must overcome the sense of loss, abandonment, and deprivation (often feelings of devaluation, inadequacy, and anger) caused by loss of the second-gender parent. Socially, the community may be burdened, not just to provide some quasi-parental experience with missing-gender adults for the growing child to compensate for what the missing-gender parent would have provided, but also to bear the adverse behavioral consequences often associated with single-gender parenting. (863-64)

Note how he shifts seamlessly from the experience of most single-parent homes (where the "loss" is literal, in the form of death or abandonment), to the experience of most homosexual homes, where the loss is more abstract and never ingrained in the experience of the child.

Never is this false equivalence made more clear than in this passage:

Children make the transition through developmental stages better, have stronger gender identity, are more confident of themselves, do better in school, have fewer emotional crises, and become functioning adults best when they are reared in two-parent, dual-gender families. As family sociologist David Popenoe puts it:

social science research is almost never conclusive... Yet in three decades of work as a social scientist, I know of few other bodies of data in which the weight of evidence is so decisively on one side of the issue: on the whole, for children, two-parent families are preferable to single-parent and stepfamilies.

As even a cursory reread of Popenoe's remarks indicates, he says nary a word about dual-gender homes, merely dual-parent homes compared to single-parent and step-parent families. For the reasons stated above, neither family formulation is comparable to a committed, monogamous homosexual relationship.

There are quite a few other, minor arguments in Wardle's article, and I also have my own minor objections to them. But I think I've hit upon the meat of the argument presented. As I said, Wardle does score a few points, regarding some methodological flaws in the scientific literature presented. Ultimately, however, I find his own position to be marred by its own flaws which severely undermine his advocacy.