A COURAGEOUS DEFENSE OF ABANDONED AND ORPHANED CHILDREN
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| Mr. George L. Metcalfe, Sr., Attorney at Law |
Hon. Evelyn J. Lynn
The Florida Senate
Tallahassee, Florida
Dear Senator Lynn:
I am not one who
anyone can accurately label "homophobic." I have homosexual friends and homosexual
professional colleagues in law whom I consider friends. I have worked in the
DCF (Department of Children and Families) court system as a lawyer in Miami for nearly 16 years. With my wife I am
raising six children from ages 8 to 20. I have provided foster services to a
client's child when he died of AIDS. I have served as an Assistant Scoutmaster in Boy
Scouting 18 mostly fatherless boys in innercity Miami. In short, I know
growing children. As a former HRS attorney who was responsible for over 1800 foster
care cases (involving about 3,500 children), I am acutely aware of children's
developmental needs firsthand.
At the time that
adolescent children in foster care contend with creating their sexual
identities, they have already faced developmental challenges establishing trust
and stability. They do not know why they are bounced from home to home in an
impersonal system which petitioned a court to permanently sever their parental
relationships.
These are unstable
children who, like all teenagers, cry out to belong with their peers and want a
home. They are VULNERABLE and IMPRESSIONABLE. They migrate to those who show
them attention which they crave. To those with a little money, excitement, and
privileges to share, foster kids are EXTRA VULNERABLE.
Most have not
resolved the life crises which brought them to state care. They have been told
that their own flesh and blood family is dangerous and neglectful. They have tragically confused minds which are
told many things about "love". They listen and identify to the
priests of their generation -- i.e., rappers like Eminem who mislead plenty of
adolescence to believe that poor parenting is normal or even celebrated on some
levels. Even well-developed youths explore their love and sexual development in
strange ways which often lead to dangerous health risks.
Homosexual
communities are in many ways like their straight counterparts in that there is
always some older person waiting to expand their sexual conquests with young,
vulnerable, confused, adolescents who are told that they need their false
mentors' "help." (While it is troubling that these same predatory
acts occur in so-called "straight" environments, such is no valid
argument to expand the venue to include gay venues and households). Few things
are as personally repulsive to certain developing teen-aged boys than to be the
subject of recruitment for homosexual sex.
Children need to
expand the time of innocence, and not be humiliated by locker room teasing at school
about their two Daddies or two Mommies. Why would a legislative governing body
make this a recurring reality in a developing child's life?
The last thing which
vulnerable, impressionable, confused, and rejected children need is a sexual
identity crisis which deceives wounded children to believe that homosexualism
is a. natural; b. healthy; c. stable; d. normal; or a social panacea. Hurt children are least able to determine what a
healthy sexual identity is when they are thrown into an abyss of confusion.
Sadly, many of the
openly homosexuals (which include accomplished lawyers and professionals) I
know carry these struggles out into their public life and display a life
message of sadness and hopelessness. (Some of these adults would confide that they would welcome
healing in these areas in their own lives).
It is NOT the role of vulnerable
orphans and rejected children to make adults feel normal or accepted about
their own sexual circumstances. To use
foster children to bolster a homosexual agenda is nothing short of predatory or
short-sighted at best. I respectfully suggest that the purpose of the Children
and Families Committee is to advance children's wellbeing, not to play into a homosexual
social engineering agenda.
None of these kids
vote. Few are qualified to testify to the Florida Senate about balancing these
interests. As a Florida Senator, it is your responsibility to understand how
human nature and circumstance affects the actual children as they grow and
properly weigh the difficult circumstances which would be thrust upon voiceless
children who have faced so many crises. These children need to HEAL. These
children do not know who they can trust. They have been lied to by the Chapter
39 experience and the failings of the first adults in their lives. This homosexual
agenda is not trustworthy for them. It offers no true hope or healing, only new
layers of confusion and uncertainty.
Statistics of the breakup of homosexual households are not
reliable or accurately reported. As a family lawyer, I notice great instability
when I am consulted on property division matters involving homosexual breakups. Few of these breakups ever see a courtroom,
but they are nonetheless substantial in number.
We know that foster
children will benefit from efforts to find healthy, stable homes where they are
safe and free to develop without forcing or aggravating their already tortured
childhoods with a sexual or gender identity crisis. If healing children is the
purpose of your committee, efforts can be made to expand the hopes of these
children with healthy mentors statewide.
I hope that you and
your fellow legislators will redirect your efforts to focus on legislating
opportunities for career advancement of foster kids and toward creating
volunteer alliances with those who meet and welcome children to the safe places
where they can grow into healthy and productive men and women.
Finally, remember
that adoption is not a right, but rather a privilege. (I say this as an
adoption lawyer). Children have long-established legal rights to safe, abuse
and neglect-free homes. I would strongly exhort any legislator against
compromising children's rights to grant privileges to a class of individuals
who seek privilege at the expense of the vulnerable.
Respectfully,
George L. Metcalfe, Sr.
Attorney at Law
The Commonwealth Building
46 S.W. First Street, Suite 101
Miami, Florida 33130
Tel (305) 448-7600
Fax (305) 416-5015
george@metcalfelaw.com
www.metcalfelaw.com
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REMEMBER
The truth has never stood in the way of ideological fanatics, any more than reality has ever stood in the way of delusional psychotics.
The truth has never stood in the way of ideological fanatics, any more than reality has ever stood in the way of delusional psychotics.
