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Texas State Legislator Proposes Bill Banning Gay Couples From Fostering Children; Program Helps Mentaly Ill To Create Art

Aired April 24, 2005 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Here's what's happening now in the news. It is a day of deadly bomb attacks in Iraq. Two car bombs killed at least six people and wounded 26 in Tikrit. Two more blast left at least 16 people dead and at least 57 wounded in Baghdad.
Israel is marking the passing of a political hero. The country's former president and former defense minister Ezer Weizman died today. Weizman was elected as Israeli's president in 1993 and served for seven years. He also brokered Israel's first peace treaty with Egypt. Wizman was 80 years old.

Three international space station crewmembers are getting ready for their return to Earth. The capsule carrying an Italian, a Russian and an American is to land in a little more than 24 hours from now. One Russian and one American will remain in orbit.

Children are caught in the middle of the latest state gay rights challenge. A bill in the Texas legislature would prevent gays from becoming foster parents. It has already passed the house. Reporter Allie Rasmus with affiliate News 8 Austin has more on the political fallout.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLI RASMUS, NEWS 8 AUSTIN: Over the past eight years, Eva Thibaudeau has been a foster parent to dozens of children. She adopted four of them.

EVA THIBAUDEAU, FOSTER PARENT: It ended up that these four children needed a permanent home than they were not able to find one. So we stepped in.

RASMUS: But new legislation that just passed the House floor would prevent Thibaudeau and her partner Christina from ever becoming foster parents again. Representative Robert Talton of Pasadena added a last-minute amendment to the Child Protective Services Bill that passed Tuesday night. It prohibits gays and lesbians from being foster parents.

ROBERT TALTON, (R) TEXAS STATE HOUSE: We don't believe that homosexuals or bisexuals should be raising our children.

RASMUS: Representative Talton says his relational for the amendment is based on his belief that homosexuality could be passed on from parent to child. TALTON: Some of us believe that they would be better off in orphanages than to be raised in a homosexual or bisexual. That's a learned behavior.

THIBAUDEAU: He clearly doesn't know anything about attachment theory and how important it is for children to be able to attach to a loving, primary parent or care giver.

RASMUS: While the Representative Talton wrote the amendment, more than half the house lawmakers voted to approve it including ten Democrats.

HEATH RIDDLE, GAY LESBIAN LOBBY OF TEXAS: We are disappointed, you know, we had hoped that the vote would have turned out better and that more people would have voted with courage and voted more according to their principles.

RASMUS: Rebecca Bigler has researched child psychology at the University of Texas for 15 years.

REBECCA BIGLER, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS: There is just no evidence whatsoever that being raised by gay and lesbians is harmful to children or puts children at risk.

RASMUS: She says what's harmful is having a child removed from a permanent home. If it becomes laws Taltons amendment would also require current gay and lesbian parents to turn the foster children back over to the state.

BIGLER: It is terribly disrupting for a child's life to be pulled out of their home and out of their family.

RASMUS: The amendment still has a few more steps to go before becoming law but joint Senate and House committees will work out the final details of the SPC Bill in the coming months. Thibaudeau says in the meantime, she is not giving up hope.

THIBAUDEAU: Our voices are going to be heard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks to affiliate News 8 Austin for that report.

The right of gays to parent in Texas has drawn national attention. We're joined now by two activists to debate the issues surrounding this controversy. Cathie Adams is the president of the Texas Eagle Forum she is in Dallas. Thanks for joining us.

CATHIE ADAMS, PRESIDENT, TEXAS EAGLE FORUM: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And Randall Ellis is the executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas and he joins us from Austin. Good to see you.

RANDALL ELLIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LESBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS LOBBY OF TEXAS: Good to see you, thank you for having us. WHITFIELD: All right well Cathie let me begin with you; at the root of this issue are children. And the question has to be asked is there such a surplus of available foster families in the state of Texas to then discriminate as some might say what households are more fitting than others based by virtue of sexual preference?

ADAMS: I think absolutely, we have got to look at the issue from the perspective of the children. And I think that there are parents out there, even today, I met a couple who is just adopted a child from China. If that couple had known that there is a need for foster parenting, I think that they would have been available for that, as well. I think the media's done an excellent job of showing us the orphanages in Russia and in China and we need to do that kind of a job as well for these children who are at risk in these foster homes.

WHITFIELD: And what are you afraid that would happen to those children who are raised in gay families, gay foster parents?

ADAMS: I think absolutely that we have got to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. And I think that when you look consistently across the country with the states that are passing these defensive marriage act bills as well as constitutional amendments saying that marriage is between a husband and wife, we are not just talking about the definition of marriage. We are looking at what is the best situation to train up children and it is a mom and a dad. It is a male and a female role model.

WHITFIELD: And Randall, isn't it the state that should perhaps look at all the parameters to try to determine what is the most fitting, best environment for a child as they try to place foster children?

ELLIS: Absolutely. But we have to look at the scientific researches out there. And there is no body of evidence that shows gays and lesbians have a negative outcome on the children that they raise. Look we are looking at removing over thousands of children from their homes currently and blocking the places of children in future homes. The children are caught in the cross fire of bigotry and discrimination and it is just a shame.

WHITFIELD: So how can --

ELLIS: There are just not enough homes.

WHITFIELD: How concerned are you, Randall, that it will be that much more disruptive for the children who are already being cared by gay parents to be removed from the care of these parents simply because of any new legislation?

ELLIS: I mean I go to bed every night praying about this. I mean attachment theory shows us that this is going to be hard on those children to have gone from a traumatizing situation, where they were beaten and abused by their parents and put in a loving, stable home. Whether those are gays and lesbians or hetero sexual and now to remove those from the homes of gays and lesbians simply because someone is pushing their ideology and not going with what social science shows us is absolutely wrong. Children of the state of Texas will suffer. It's a child welfare issue not a gay lesbian rights issue.

WHITFIELD: Cathie.

ADAMS: But the issue is the children. And the fact --

ELLIS: You are right Cathie.

ADAMS: That we have not asked the question before. There is no intention of this author to go into the homes that already exist.

WHITFIELD: Why not?

ELLIS: This is what the legislation --

WHITFIELD: Why not?

ELLIS: Stop and say that's not the intent if that's currently in the law.

WHITFIELD: Well Cathie since you and Randall both agree that children are the root of the issue, why not go poll and ask these children what their opinions are? How they're being raised. As part of a study to determine whether this is indeed the right thing to do?

ADAMS: Well, I think that actually the children need someone to speak for them. These are minors. And, again, if we think that it is so important to define family as a heterosexual family, a man and woman, this is happening across the country, then children deserve nothing less. They deserve a male and female, a mommy and daddy, role model in their homes.

ELLIS: Children --

ADAMS: This is good and healthy for the future of Texas.

ELLIS: And if we look at state of Texas and if we look at the numbers that were printed in the "Austin American Statesman," showing where our children stand on the issue of poverty, I think we are number 48th. Immunizations, the amount of money that we spent on the CPS System, the children in foster care, we come up number 47. There is a lot the state of Texas can do to improve the child welfare of the most vulnerable children in this state and are not doing it.

WHITFIELD: All right.

ELLIS: And so offer up an amendment like this with no place to put these children, no other solution is irresponsible.

WHITFIELD: All right. I have to --

ELLIS: You know that I know that.

WHITFIELD: I will have to let that be the last word. Randall Ellis executive director of Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. And Cathie Adams of the Texas Equal Forum. Thanks to both of you for joining us. ADAMS: Thank you.

ELLIS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: In other news across America now, more than 30 people are nursing injuries from a bus-truck collision. On a New Mexico highway. State police say a passenger bus rear-ended a tractor-trailer on Interstate 25 early this morning. No life threatening injuries have been reported.

A sky diving cinematographer is dead after losing his legs during a jump near Deland, Florida. Police say Albert Guswing had jumped from a propeller plane and deployed his chute when he struck the left wing of the plane with both legs severed at the knees, Wing managed to land near the airport while he later died at a hospital.

The two-week Kentucky Derby Festival is underway in Louisville. A crowd of more than 300,000 endured sharp winds, bitter cold and freezing rain last night to watch the famous annual fireworks show. Thunder over Louisville is what it's called. The Kentucky Derby takes place May 7th.

And have you ever had a bad dream? That you botched the signing of the -- the singing rather of the National Anthem before a stadium full of people. A young singer lived that nightmare at Friday's U.S. Canada exhibition hockey game in Quebec. Listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light was the twilight -- sorry.

WHITFIELD: Oh, poor thing. Well, Caroline Marcil of Montreal, ouch, forgot the words and then she came back out and slipped and fell. And a real embarrassment for her. This mortified mishap earned her an interview today on "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then you don't speak English as your first language right?

CAROLINE MARCIL: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You speak French?

MARCIL: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So was that part of the problem? It's not even your language you're trying to sing.

MARCIL: Maybe. It's like it was a -- it was a lot of things together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MARCIL: Like the emotion, the stress. And --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then the crowd started booing.

MARCIL: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were really rude.

MARCIL: That --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That threw you.

MARCIL: Made me blink and it was -- I didn't know what -- what I was singing. Oh say can you see --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: She tried it again and got through the song actually, once it was broadcast on the air. Redemption.

Well straight ahead, we will meet a new breed of conservationists; his motivation to go green is mostly about the green in his wallet.

But first, a hero on an on and off the battlefield an insurgent attack took his leg but not his spirit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hilbert Caesar is a war hero. The retired army staff sergeant lost his leg in a bombing in Iraq and he is still challenging himself. He recently competed in the Boston Marathon. Here's CNN's Casey Wian with his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Once he gets moving on his hand cycle, retired army staff sergeant Hilbert Caesar says it's hard to slow him down. That fierce determination carried him through seven years in the military, doing tours in Germany, Korea, Kosavo and Iraq. Until April 18, 2004 when Caesar's armored halitsert drove by a roadside bomb while on a mission.

HILBERT CAESAR, RETIRED ARMY STAFF SERGEANT: Just rolling and all of a sudden, just boom. You know, this loud explosion. And, and everything had just paused. You know?

WIAN: Three soldiers were injured including Caesar. The explosion severed his right leg just above the knee.

CAESAR: I saw a buddy of mine he was, you know, he was collapsing. I was inside the vehicle. As I was reaching over to try to like, you know, try ease his fall, you know, I just like collapsed, just dropped. That's -- you know, my leg, it was gone.

WIAN: As a section chief with the 27th Field Artillery, first armored division, Caesar commanded seven soldiers.

CAESAR: You know, they learn everything from me. That was my god. That was my family there at the time so, it was difficult leaving them. You know? It really was. Because I -- like every day, that's who I was thinking about. Making sure they were all right. Hopefully I trained them well and that they would step up to the plate and do their jobs, you know.

WIAN: An athlete all his life in team sports, Caesar thought long distance runners and cyclists a bit crazy. Since losing his leg, he has changed his mind and in fact, he competed in his first hand cycle race just four months after his injury and has completed three marathons. Most recently the Boston Marathon on April 18 a year to the day after losing his leg.

CAESAR: Took me a while but it made it. Feels pretty good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah!

WIAN: If not the injury Caesar says he would return to active duty.

CAESAR: Thank you.

WIAN: Instead he works for the Department of Veterans of Affairs and acts as an inspiration to his fellow soldiers.

CAESAR: So hopefully they see this and the guys that spirits are low and stuff, they can, you know, raise up and say, you know what I can do that, too.

WIAN: Casey Wian, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well news around the world now. Armenia marks a solemn anniversary. Hundreds of thousands of people today commemorated the 90th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenia's by the automat empire. Armenia's say as many as a million and a half people were killed as part of a genocidal campaign to get them out of Turkey. Turkey says the number deaths is inflated and that many people were killed in civil unrest.

The Syrian troop pullout is nearing completion in Lebanon. Hundreds of Syrian soldiers crossed the border out of Lebanon today. Syria has until April 30th to complete its withdrawal but at this rate, troops will be out days earlier. The withdrawal will end 29 years of Syrian military presence in that country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll never see anything like this again in my life.

WHITFIELD: What a champion. American horse Silent witness has earned a spot in the history books with this record breaking 17th straight win. The 5-year-old ran the history-making race in Hong Kong and there is no doubt we will be seeing a lot more of Silent Witness in the near future.

Well, it's not just gas prices that have Americans dealing with high-energy costs. Heating and cooling their homes takes more money than ever these days but as CNN's Peter Viles found out, that has a lot of people taking a second look at low cost solutions that used to be attractive only to committed environmentalists.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Meet Dan Mirisola, old school energy hog. There is an RV in his backyard and not one, not two but three big trucks out front. And, yes, that's a Harley by the three-car garage.

DAN MIRISOLA, SOLAR HOMEOWNER: I pay like $600 a month in gas for my trucks. I hate that.

VILES: And then there is the house, a 6,000 square foot mansion with central air that eats about $9,000 worth of electricity in a year. Were you looking at your power bills and saying --

MIRISOLA: Oh I was dying $800 bill. Aah! Murder.

VILES: So Dan and his wife did the smart thing; they installed solar panels on the roof. Suddenly those $800.00 bills dropped to less than $100 a month.

MIRISOLA: Well for the first two months, Edison kept coming out here with criminal people thinking we were stealing. So --

VILES: So they're not stealing power, their making it. Even on a cloudy day, look closely. The electrical meter is spinning backyards. That means the mirror solars are producing more power than they're using. So what's happening to that electricity? You are giving it back to them?

MIRISOLA: Yes my neighbors are using it right now kind of thing.

VILES: Solar made sense on this house because of a combination of factors. Temporary rebates and tax credits and soaring energy costs.

THOMAS BALL, SOLAR ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS: People never used to talk about utility rates, they use to be $10, $15, $20, $30 dollars a month. Now it's not uncommon to see people's electric rates being 2, 3, $400 a month.

VILES: California's governor is pushing to put solar panels on a million California rooftops?

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R) CALIFORNIA: It is good for the taxpayers, it is good for businesses and it is great for the environment.

VILES: After rebates, Dan Mirisola paid roughly $38,000 for his solar system. And figures it will pay for itself in four more years.

MIRISOLA: Because I'm looking forward to in four more years having free electricity. That is cool. VILES: Now, if only Detroit could make him an electric powered pickup truck.

Peter Viles, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: When CNN LIVE SUNDAY returns, they were once labeled untreatable. But now, art is now helping to free their troubled minds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: They say all great artists suffer for their work. Now a program in New York is helping those who suffer from mental illness produce art. Alina Cho takes us inside the art therapy class as it's allowing the homeless to deal with their inner demons. It is something you only see here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe what you could do is --

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's called art therapy. Heavy on the therapy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never saw you do anything like this before.

CHO: Teacher Anne Tannenbaum admits it is not really about the art.

ANNE TANNENBAUM, ART THERAPIST: I think that what I do during any given day is much more like creating an opportunity for someone to grow or express themselves.

CHO: Take 67-year-old Robert O'Malley.

TANNENBAUM: Did you choose those colors for any particular reason?

ROBERT O'MALLEY: Well, I'm the type that likes bright colors.

TANNENBAUM: Uh-huh.

O'MALLEY: Even my clothes. Everything has to be bright.

TANNENBAUM: Yes.

O'MALLEY: If it is dull, I don't like it.

CHO: Robert says creating art is pure freedom, something he doesn't feel in life especially with people.

O'MALLEY: You can't talk to them the way you like to talk to them.

CHO: The same is true for David Rosenthal, he's 58. David says this painting is about coming together.

Why is it important for you to show that?

DAVID ROSENTHAL: This is sort of what's going on in my head. It has to go on and put it together.

CHO: Art therapy helps them do that.

TANNENBAUM: When one of our clients is able to sit down and create something, it's, you know, it is from within. Here is a piece of me. Here's something I can say, you know, so I think it's a way for them to get hold of an identity.

CHO: Those who live at the homeless shelter, which used to be a mental ward suffer from illnesses like schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder. The shelter is a last resort.

TANNENBAUM: Put yourself in their shoes. I mean they have reached the point where they don't have a home.

CHO: The art therapy class is a rare treat. Most shelters don't have the budget for it. A walk through the halls here is like seeing a mosaic of emotion. Tannenbaum says some of the artwork is gallery quality. While others are more elementary. This painting is chaotic from a distance but at close range, there's an oasis.

TANNENBAUM: A beautiful little house in there. With a stream and trees and, you know, I like to think that the client felt that the world was kind of a big, messy place but inside there was this little spot. That's home.

CHO: Ron Sorum (ph) who suffers from PTSD grew up on a Minnesota farm surrounded by animals. His art reflects that. You can do that?

RON SORUM (ph): Well, I love people, too. But I'm very introverted and I can deal with animals better than people.

CHO: Don't talk back?

SORUM (ph): Right, that is one big thing.

CHO: Anne says in some ways she gets more out of the class than her students do.

TANNENBAUM: They're interesting and in ways extremely generous you know sharing their lives and being in this vulnerable position. It's just a powerful thing to come in and be, you know, be part of that.

CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, that's going to do it for us. "Next @ CNN" is straight ahead. And here Christina Park with a preview. CHRISTINA PARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We'll show you plans for a new way to treat soldiers wounded on the front lines. A new database to keep track of dangerous dogs and the first video game in which taking drugs is part of the action. Virtual drugs, of course.

WHITFIELD: And don't forget coming up at 6:00, the search for the fountain of youth and what can really be done to stay younger longer. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back with the headlines right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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