If you are single and want to be a foster parent it may not be possible in Texas if HB 1911 passes.
A Pasadena lawmaker introduced a bill that would stop unmarried people from becoming foster parents and homosexuals and lesbians feel the bill is attacking them.
Randall Ellis is the executive director of Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas and has choice words about Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena.
"Mr. Talton is homophobic. He is prejudice, and he doesn't like anyone that doesn't fit into his model of a traditional family," he said.
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Foster parent rules
Legislation would ban gays, lesbians and single people from becoming foster parents.
 
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Talton wrote a bill changing the requirements for a foster parent. No longer would an unmarried relative or single person qualify to be a foster parent in Texas.
"I think children need to learn what is right and what is wrong. We need to have some lifestyle, and I just feel like that the gay and lesbian lifestyle for example, is not proper. If a child decides to do that after they're 18, it's their business. We as a state should not be teaching that," Talton said.
Eva Thibaudeau is a lesbian and has been a foster parent for over six years to more than 70 kids. She's adopted two boys -- Selene and Isaiah.
If the law passes, she'd no longer be able to be a foster parent.
"It'd affect me very profoundly, and personally. I often say what I do it isn't a job. It is a way of life," she said.
If the bill passes, it would close more than 1,500 homes to more than 2,000 children. The cost to the state would be $16 million.
"There are just far too few foster parents in this state already. It is a difficult job. It takes a lot emotionally, physically, spiritually from people," Thibaudeau said.
Talton believes it is more important for these children to grow up in a traditional home.
"You have to decide what you think is right and what is not. I'd rather see children growing up in an orphanage, quite frankly, and learning the right ways of how -- regarding their sexuality -- than they grow up in a home teaching them that homosexuality is OK," Talton said.
Thibaudeau said this bill would hurt children who do not have a home.
"I'd like to ask anyone who supports this legislation, and is married: How many foster children have they taken in? And how many are they willing to take? When these children are ripped out of loving homes where they've been for a long time and found safety, permanency, and stability and I'd like them to step up, and pick up the pieces," Thibaudeau said.
The House Affairs Committee is looking at the bill. Talton has already filed another bill that prohibits lesbians and homosexuals from becoming foster parents.
