First lady promotes foster parenting

DES MOINES – Iowa's first lady parted ways Monday with Republicans seeking her husband's job in the November election who would ban same-sex couples from becoming foster parents or adopting children.

“Obviously, I disagree with their conclusion,” said Mari Culver, wife of Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, who joined members of foster and adoptive families at a Statehouse event to celebrate May as foster care month and to honor Iowa's foster families.

“There are a lot of loving, gay couples that want to foster and adopt, and I think we should allow them to. We need more foster parents in the state, clearly,” she told reporters “We need more, not less, good quality foster care homes and couples who are willing to do it.”

During last week's GOP gubernatorial debate, Republicans Rod Roberts, a five-term representative from Carroll, and Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City management consultant, said they would ban same-sex couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents while former Gov. Terry Branstad of rural Boone adoption should be in the best interest of the child and “generally that means that you'd want to have it with a man and woman.”

Vander Plaats said he thought the state policy allowing single gay individuals or same-sex couples to become foster parents or adopt children “was a mistake back in the 1990s, I still believe it's a mistake today.”

Currently, Iowa has 5,300 kids in out-of-home care, with about 60 percent in foster homes and the rest in “relative” homes, said Roger Munns, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services. About 3,800 kids are in foster-home settings, according to the DHS bureau for child welfare and community services.

State policy allows gay individuals or same-sex couples to adopt children or become foster parents, but Munns said the process does not ask about familial relationships and the department does not keep specific data. He said a snapshot of adoptions during a six-month period ending March 31, 2007, showed 525 adoptions, including 84 involving single women and 49 involving single men.

“The rule has been that the decision is made on whether or not there is a permanent safe and nurturing place for a child. The sexual preference of the parents is not one of the criteria that determine those first two,” Munns said.

Iowa has had same-sex couples and individual gays or lesbians adopt children or become foster parents, he added. “They have been successful. As far as I know anyway, we haven't had any adoption dissolved because of the sexual preference of the adopting people. I'm sure I would have heard of that,” Munns said.

Monday's Statehouse event included the unveiling of a new “I Did It” campaign aimed at encouraging more Iowans to consider becoming a foster parent or adopting a child.

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