Republican Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ-04) met with a group of high school students in New Jersey and appeared to be caught off guard when one of the students asked him about his position on LGBTQ couples adopting children. From the Washington Blade:
The recording begins with Hannah Valdes, a senior at Colts Neck High School, telling Smith she has a gay sister who has said in the future she wants to adopt a child with her partner. The student asks the New Jersey Republican whether “based on household studies” her sister would be “less of a legitimate parent” than someone in a different-sex relationship and why she shouldn’t adopt a child.
In an apparent reference to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling for marriage equality, Smith says “the issue, legally, is moot at this point especially with the Supreme Court decision” and tells the student her sister is “free to adopt.”
Valdes and a classmate pressed on, asking him to explain his personal position. Rep. Smith said there were long waits for adoption and many people waiting, and went on to ramble about orphanages still being an option for kids, which sparked audible laughter and disbelief from the teens.
Listen to Rep. Smith’s response here:
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Thursday, Sep 13, 2018 · 2:37:31 PM +00:00 · Jen Hayden
Politico has an update that admonishes the Washington Blade for cutting the audio and distorting Smith’s comments.
“Adoption is all about the best interests of the child. Now, there are people who feel that the best interests of the child is for gay couples to adopt,” Smith tells the student, before citing an unspecific “home study” to justify the fact that “I would vote the same way, frankly, as I did then.”
Smith then bemoaned the fact that Catholic Charities had stopped doing adoptions in several jurisdictions “because they believe the best interests of the child is not that kind of adoption.”
But when a student then asked Smith if he thought orphanages would be in the better interests of the child, the congressman said, “No. Lord, no,” and explained how he’s “very aggressively pro-adoption.”
“Anybody can twist your words and make false representations when they splice up a tape,” Smith said in a statement that accompanied the longer recording his office released. “It is despicable that someone thought they could score political points by distorting the truth and raising false questions about my record and the full range of topics discussed at the [high school] assembly.”