title:  A Federal Judge Just Slapped Down One Of Mississippi’s Most Digustingly Bigoted Laws
text: Mississippi has been on a theocratic tear lately. When not giving churches the ability to create  militias for God  with the power to use deadly force and carry firearms, the state s largely conservative legislature has been busy attacking gay rights with something bordering on obsession.Mississippi s state Senate pushed through a vicious anti-gay bill that would:But if that wasn t enough, the bill also reinforced Mississippi s long-standing ban on same-sex couples from adopting children. The insane bigotry on display in Mississippi in the face of current trends towards LGBT rights has led to bizarre work arounds, including social workers asking same-sex couples to live in separate houses for at least six months so they could legally pretend to be single parents *wink wink* and not two loving ones who happen to be gay.A federal judge took one look at the case and concluded that Mississippi was violating a mountain of human rights.Written by U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan III, the order argued that the state s law barring the adoptions obviously targets married gay couples and limits their rights.  Furthermore, the court argued that the Department of Human Services  policy violates the constitution s equal protection clause as the result of last year s landmark Supreme Court ruling that laws against same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.In short: You can t tell same-sex couples that they can t have children just because you don t happen to like same-sex marriage. It doesn t work that way.The fact of the matter is that Mississippi has absolutely no case   other than unmitigated bigotry   to justify its same-sex adoption ban. Study after study has shown that adopted children in same-sex households do just as well as their counterparts adopted by heterosexual parents. In one major study, researchers discovered that kids raised in same-sex households actually did better.In light of that research, preventing gay couples from adopting isn t just a major screw you to the potential parents, but also to the kids waiting in foster homes. Republican lawmakers may feel comfortable telling gay Mississippians that they aren t allowed to have children, but it takes a particularly heartless person to coldly explain to a child that they can t have a family because a few politicians in the Capitol find same-sex marriage  icky. Thankfully, Judge Jordan s ruling isn t just good news for the people of Mississippi, but have far-reaching implications. As of now, the Department of Human Serves doesn t explicitly protect sexual orientation from adoption discrimination. Jordan called bullshit. According to his ruling, that policy is, in itself, discrimination and should be amended. That would mean Mississippi would be just the first of several Republican states to suddenly have their bigoted adoption policies dismantled.If it stands it means a lot of kids waiting for adoption are about to get some great news.Featured image via Wikipedia 