Other than the loving and devoted example of Del and Phyllis (the female couple who were the first marrieds in San Francisco), I'm reminded of the male couple who used to live not terribly far from me -- over in Tampa -- who have devoted themselves to fostering several kids... wait, documentdocumentdocument. We need a link....

"Steven Lofton, 41, of Oregon. Lofton and his partner of 15 years, Roger Croteau, 43, are both registered nurses with a combined 20 years of experience in pediatrics...." "...created a family when they began foster parenting Frank and Tracy, both age 14, and 10-year-old Bert, all of whom were born with HIV, as infants. They also parented another HIV positive child, Ginger, from infancy until her death at age six. After relocating with the children to Portland, Ore., in the late 1990s, they took home Wayne, now 8 and Ernie, now 5, who are also living with HIV. Under Oregon law they were able to adopt the pair. However, because Florida does not allow gays and lesbians to adopt, they are now in danger of losing Bert, who has been deemed adoptable by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) because he no longer has HIV."

I'd like to see some of these neo-cons be willing to foster HIV-positive or other health-challenged children. There's a lot of families of faith out there who are doing this without any fanfare, of course; but they're also not spending all their time and energy trying to prevent other people from taking care of these ...children being left behind -- to borrow the phrase the Bush Administration stole from a group whose name won't even Google up in association to their former motto anymore.