Subject: Gay Activists Clash With Dukakis on Foster Care Date: Published: 5/26/88 155 lines Source: WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. Campaign '88: Gay Activists Clash With Dukakis on Foster Care, A Conflict Some Say He Has Been Using Deftly --- By David Shribman Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal LOS ANGELES -- Michael Dukakis felt ambushed when he walked into the Four Seasons Hotel, confronted a group of gay activists and was told that he was "anti-gay." In the past few weeks, Gov. Dukakis has been picketed, jeered and heckled by gay activists angered over his Massachusetts policy making it much more difficult for gays than for traditional couples to be foster parents. And with the California primary less than two weeks away, this vocal segment of this state's Democratic coalition is alienated from Mr. Dukakis and dispirited about the prospect that he will head the Democratic ticket in November. "There's going to be a bloodbath in the gay community over Michael Dukakis," says Eric Rofes, who heads the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center here but who hasn't endorsed any candidate. But a number of political strategists, Republicans as well as Democrats, believe that the Massachusetts governor's continuing disputes with gays may work to his political advantage because they help him project a sense of, as a leading adviser says, "being his own man." They believe, moreover, that the feud sets him apart from Democrats such as former vice president Walter Mondale, who courted the party's constituent groups only to lose the 1984 election in a 49-state landslide. "Every fight he has with gays makes him look safe," says Republican pollster Lance Tarrance. "If he's eyeing November, he's delighting in these confrontations." And former Democratic Party Chairman John White says, "Mondale never said 'no' to anybody, and Dukakis is fortunate to find a constituency in the party he can publicly disagree with." Mr. Dukakis had to defend his position on homosexual adoption during a nationally televised debate last night. This dispute began in 1985 when the Dukakis administration yanked two young boys from the home of a homosexual couple serving as foster parents and then issued regulations favoring traditional couples in the placement of foster children. "It is best," Mr. Dukakis says, "to grow up in a household with a mother and father and other children." The regulations give top priority to placing a child in his own home or with relatives. If that isn't possible, the Dukakis regulations set out priorities: first, to married couples, with preference to those with parenting experience and to couples with an adult at home; then to single individuals with parenting experience, with preference to those who can stay at home; and finally to individuals without parenting experience, again with preference to those who can stay at home. The regulations, which are guidelines for social workers, don't explicitly exclude gays but they don't recognize the existence of gay couples and thus assign them lowest priority. The placement of a child with a single person requires the written approval of the commissioner of social services, a step not required in the other cases. The result is that no foster children have been placed with openly gay parents since the new system went into effect later in 1985, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Human Services. "From the beginning there have been misunderstandings about the policy," says Philip Johnston, the Massachusetts secretary of human services and a close Dukakis adviser on social issues. "It is not anti-gay. It is rooted in sound social-work practice and is very fair and reasonable... . The governor has made it clear that there is no right to be a foster parent." Mr. Dukakis vetoed an outright prohibition on gay foster parents passed by the Massachusetts Legislature last June. But the removal of the two children and the new policy won Mr. Dukakis the lasting enmity of many Massachusetts gay activists. "The foster-care policy of the most liberal governor I will ever see in my lifetime says that of all the people in the commonwealth, gay or lesbian people are the least qualified to provide foster care," complains Timothy McFeeley, a Boston attorney prominent in gay political circles and a one-time Dukakis supporter. Gays also take issue with the governor's refusal to issue an executive order banning discrimination on the basis of sexual preference and with his support of regulations permitting insurance companies to ask applicants to take AIDS tests for life coverage exceeding $100,000. But Mr. Dukakis argues that the fight against discrimination should be waged with legislation, not an executive order, and says that his insurance regulationstied up in a court fight-make Massachusetts one of the few states that ban AIDS antibody tests for health and accident or group insurance. Mr. Dukakis takes credit for supporting a civil-rights law in Massachusetts that led to a court decision defining violence because of sexual orientation a civil-rights crime. He boasts that his state has developed the most comprehensive AIDS education program of any state -- the state government mailed an AIDS brochure to every household in Massachusetts -- and has devoted state funds to research on acquired immune deficiency syndrome. "Gov. Dukakis's record on AIDS in Massachusetts is exceptionally good, particularly on spending money for care for people with AIDS," says Paul Boneberg, executive director of Moblization Against AIDS, a San Francisco lobbying group. Political analysts think most of California's gay Democrats -- who account for 8% of the state's Democrats, according to the nonpartisan Field California Poll -- will side with the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the June 7 primary. Mr. Jackson favors a federal order banning discrimination against gays in the federal government, including the armed forces; supports the notion that gay partners should share benefits, including health insurance; opposes mandatory AIDS testing; and would permit gays to be foster parents if they otherwise qualify. Many gay activists believe that Mr. Dukakis is uncomfortable with gay issues. "This is homophobia in the true sense of the word," says Mr. Rofes, a former gay community organizer in Boston. "He's freaked out -- traumatized -- by gays. He doesn't want to understand." But Republicans believe Mr. Dukakis, whose campaign reflects his belief in traditional values, is using his dispute with gays deftly and they worry that he will reap political benefit among swing voters in blue-collar communities like Orange County. "He's using this as one of the issues to make us believe that he's a mile to the right of Jesse Jackson, when he's only an inch to the right of him," charges New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a longtime Dukakis critic who is national co-chairman of Vice President George Bush's presidential campaign. Some Democrats believe Mr. Dukakis's confrontation with gays in Los Angeles signals he is tough enough to prevail in November. "All seven gays in America who want to adopt children are unhappy, but millions of other Americans are impressed -- a classic lesson in 'special interest' politics," says political consultant Mark Siegel, a Dukakis supporter. Yet Mr. Dukakis's leading gay supporters predict that despite his difficulties with gays now, he has more appeal than Mr. Bush. "A lot of gay men who used to vote Republican are going to switch because they've been repelled by the way Bush has courted the far right," says Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, one of Mr. Dukakis's leading gay supporters. "There are a large number of gay men who are well-to-do who have voted their pocketbooks. But when your friends die and you're afraid of dying, you begin to feel differently." [This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]