From: Jon Holden Galluccio
jon@galluccio.com
Sent: Saturday, September 05, 1998 9:32 PM
To: stareditor@starnews.com
Subject: Mayor opposes adoption by gay couple.......By Judi Turpen

Well it would appear that Anderson Mayor J. Mark Lawler is just another politician who would hold America's most precious children hostage to advance their own agenda of bigotry and discrimination. Will he suffer as a result?, who knows but I do know who will suffer from such political grandstanding - Children.

The children for whom he would have remain in foster care or separated from their siblings.

The children that are hardest to place and are bounced from foster home to foster home because a permanent home is not available. To "oppose adoption outside of any traditional family setting" (stated Lawler) is practically sentencing these children to a life of institutionalized living.

The majority of children in America do not come from his definition of family. What about these families that live in Anderson, does he disqualify their worth. Surely their are many single parents doing a better job then some two parent heterosexual households.

The truth of the statements made in Lawler's letter is clear when he states "It is inconceivable to me that any agency would grant an adoption to a gay couple that seeks to raise children under such controversial circumstances." This is about his opinion of homosexuality and not an educated opinion about parenting.

Parenting, commitment, responsibility and love are a few of the more appropriate and important issues one should focus on when thinking about the best interest of a child but the mayor missed that. Perhaps he should stick to approving zoning variances and property taxes and leave this one to Bruce Stansberry, director of the Madison County office of the Division of Family and Social Services.

Jon and Michael Galluccio
644 Lincoln Avenue
Maywood, NJ 07607
jgalluccio@msn.com