Rainbow Report

10 Jul 2013

Rainbow Report on Gay Parenting & Child Abuse

News & Politics, Sexuality

And first, a warning. Some listeners might find this topic confronting. If you are a survivor of sexual abuse, you may not want to read further, or listen to the show.

Gay Parenting, and Child Abuse. Two things you never want to see coupled together.

Just over a week ago, a terrible, almost unbelievable story of child sex abuse by a pair of so-called gay dads emerged.  The story was covered by Sydney Morning Herald/Age crime reporter Nick Ralston, who joins us on the show.

As soon as the story broke around the world, we heard from people on the religious right saying this proved that gay couples should not be allowed to adopt and foster.

But as Mia Freedman said:

The depravity and pure evil of this story is hard to comprehend. You are probably reeling right now – just as we are. And you should be. What happened to this little boy almost defies words. But let’s be very clear that this post is in no way reflective of the vast majority of same-sex parents who adopt children or have them via surrogates.

Mark Newton and Peter Truong illegally ‘purchased’ a child and falsified birth documents in order to adopt him and remove him from Russia. For the sole purpose of sexually abusing him from the first weeks of his life. Tragically, there are evil people in the world who should never have access to children.

Sexuality is a separate issue. Evil people come in all shapes, sizes, sexualities and genders. There have been heterosexual couples who have been convicted of similar heinous crimes as Newton and Truong.

So while as a society we must do whatever we can to protect children and this story raises some hugely distressing and disturbing questions about how such a thing could happen, we will not allow any comments on this post that imply that there is a connection between homosexuality and paedophilia.

With me in the studio will be two people from Berry Street, a not-for-profit, non-government and non-church based organisation that works with children and young people who have often suffered great distress and significant harm growing up in families where violence, neglect, abuse, trauma and poverty have prevented them from having a good childhood.

Annette Jackson is the Director of Berry Street’s Take Two program, a mental health program that supports children and young people who have experienced abuse, recognising the trauma they have experienced, the impact that trauma has and how they can recover.

Anita Pell is the Senior Advisor, Home Based Care, at Berry Street. Anita has worked in the sector for 30 plus years and is passionate about the area of Foster Care.  She is working on a project with Flinders Uni on professionalising foster care and has worked closely with the Department of Human Services on improving foster care in Victoria.

Berry Street actively recruits same-sex couples as foster carers, as do most fostering and adoption services, such as Barnardos.

We’ll also hear from Rodney Chiang-Cruise of Gay Dads Australia, as the University of Melbourne releases interim findings that the children of same-sex parents do better than those raised by heterosexual couples .

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:27 — 43.4MB)

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News & Politics, Sexuality

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News & Politics, Sexuality

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