Posted on May 8, 2000 | by Todd Starnes

JACKSON, Miss. (BP)--Gov. Ronnie Musgrove signed legislation May 3 to ban homosexual couples from adopting children in the state of Mississippi.

Musgrove, a Democrat, gave his approval of the law after it passed a vote in the state's legislature. The governor is a member of the First Baptist Church Batesville, Miss.

Supporters said the legislation was spurred in part by Vermont's new law giving homosexual couples nearly all of the benefits of marriage.

"We need to put up a firewall and say, `This is not going to happen here,'" Mike Crook, state director for the Tupelo-based American Family Association told The Washington Times. "They can go to court all day long and I think we'll prevail."

Alan Kilgore, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Batesville, and Musgrove's minister, told Baptist Press he supported the governor. "I don't think homosexual couples should be able to adopt. Any Christian would feel that way, as a believer in the Bible. Marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't think it is God's plan for homosexuals to raise children," Kilgore said.

"I'm proud of Ronnie [Musgrove]. He is a great Christian man and family man and I believe the state of Mississippi will see that in the years to come," Kilgore added.

Robert H. Knight, of the Family Research Council in Washington, also praised the Mississippi legislation. "This is a victory for children who need both parents and it's a victory for common sense -- the presumption should always be that there's a preference for married-couple families to raise children," Knight said.

The American Civil Liberties Union has threatened to file a lawsuit on behalf of an unidentified homosexual couple planning an adoption in Mississippi. Mississippi became the third state, after Florida and Utah, to legally ban homosexuals from adopting children.

However, legislators in Connecticut are poised to approve a bill that would allow homosexuals and other unmarried people to adopt their partners' children. Connecticut's governor has said he would sign the bill into law.

Last year, New Hampshire legislators repealed its ban on homosexual adoption.

To date, 16 states are considering bills that would allow homosexuals to adopt each other's children: Alaska, Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.