PRESS RELEASE: 10-14-2009 08:30 a.m. / 06:30 p.m.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, FAYETTEVILLE—SCHOOL OF LAW

The Arkansas Law Review is hosting a symposium on the Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban November 5, 2009, from 12:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. in the University of Arkansas School of Law Courtroom. Professor Mark Strasser of Capital University School of Law and Professor Lynn Wardle of Brigham Young University Law School will speak on the constitutionality of what was Arkansas’s Initiated Act 1 of the 2008 general election. Laura Kellams, former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter and director of Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families in NWA, will also speak alongside Jerry Cox, founder and president of the Arkansas Family Council. A reception will follow in the law school atrium hosted by the law school Young Democrats and Federalist Society.

The symposium will address the legal and political issues surrounding what was Initiated Act 1, as well as the national context in which it was passed. It will represent a balanced presentation of the various viewpoints on this widely debated issue. Some have viewed this law as strengthening the foundation of families so that children are raised with proper moral role models of married parents. Others have viewed the law as unrightfully discriminating against homosexuals who are unable to marry under the laws of Arkansas. Still others have viewed the law as hurting the interests of children who could otherwise be adopted by unmarried couples. The array of speakers will address these topics and following the symposium the Arkansas Law Review will dedicate one issue of its publication to scholarly works surrounding this topic.

For more information on the symposium, please visit arkansaslawreview.org or contact Samantha Leflar at sblassi@uark.edu, or David Mitchell at dmitchel@uark.edu.