April 14, 2016 by Robert Franklin, Esq, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization
The opposition to SB 668 in Florida gets nuttier with every passing day. I’ve said they’re desperate, but it’s worse than that. Some of these people need a nice soft room somewhere quiet. As far as the prospects for SB 668 go, that’s all to the good. The more they disgrace themselves, the better. What’s less so is the fact that the news media, until now relatively balanced, is coming up with pieces like this (WPTV, 4/12/16).
The bad aspect of the WPTV article is that it claims that the dispute over SB 668 is between men and women. Somehow they managed to overlook all the pro-SB 668 women who were there at the Capital rally and appear in WPTV’s own photographs. Needless to say, WPTV reporters did no research of their own into the matter, nor did they manage to speak to anyone like, say, Molly Olson, Dianna Thompson or anyone at Leading Women for Shared Parenting. Failing that of course, they could have just picked up the phone and had a chat with any of the 18 female Florida legislators who voted in support of the bill. In fact, their piece was so bad that it dropped all pretense of balance. No one in favor of shared parenting was interviewed or quoted, just those opposed.
They did none of that, preferring, I assume, to try to create controversy where there is none. Isn’t there enough controversy about this bill without imagining more? I suppose not.
But for sheer lunacy, we must turn to the person WPTV interviewed, one Adele Guadalupe who represents an “organization” so trivial it doesn’t even have a website. It’s called Families Against Court Travesties (FACTS); here’s what she says about herself and her organization:
Adele Guadalupe of Palm Beach County Florida became an avid activist 10 years ago, after a Family Court awarded her son-in-law custody of her grandson, at the arbitrary discretion of the court. Contact with the child was denied the mother and the entire maternal family denied the mother and the entire maternal family for over 6 years. She was one of the founders of Families Against Court Travesties (FACTS), a Court Watch Organization that has had over 150 members and handles a hotline for parents in fear of losing custody and/or contact with their children in Family Court. FACTs is an ad hoc committee of the National Organization of Women.
She was a past Pres. of South Palm Beach County NOW, and now is VP of Communications.
She is also a founding member of the National NOW Family Law Advisory Committee and has been a contributing committee member for over 6 years.
She is also Co-Pres. of Florida NOW Child Custody/Family Court Committee.
Adele has been a guest speaker and has given workshops for many organizations, She’s participated in National Judicial Nominating conferences, brought needed legislation to the attention of several legislators, participated vigorously in past elections and testified before the Supreme Court’s Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity several times.
Prior to retiring she was an Interior Designer, and small business owner of several businesses.
Keeping the courts open, fair and unbiased has been her passion for the past 10 years.
Email Adele at adelegg@comcast.net
So that’s who Guadalupe says she is – a member of NOW and a woman whose daughter was scorned by a family court judge. Now, we all know that family courts can be hell on parents, but we also know that mothers have to do handstands to lose custody. I’d be very, very interested to know the facts of her daughter’s custody case.
What did Guadalupe have to say about SB 668?
"The mother carried the baby for 9 months, the mother was nauseous and threw up, probably had to give up her job, the mother had to give birth, the mother has to breast feed the child, all of a sudden the mother counts for nothing and the father has a fifty percent right to this child?"
It’s hard to be so wrong about so much in so few words. Guadalupe’s brief against SB 668 is entirely based on the fact that women gestate babies. (At least she got that right.) So, apart from everything else, she’s not arguing only against SB 668, she’s arguing against fathers having any parental rights at all. If pregnancy is her justification for opposing shared parenting, then it’s also her justification for simply leaving Dad behind altogether. Of course Guadalupe doesn’t say so, doubtless because doing so would make it clear to everyone just how far out on the fringe she really is.
“Had to give up her job?” Ridiculous. The overwhelming majority of mothers who were working when they became pregnant don’t quit their jobs. And next to none of them “had to.” Those who do quit work do so because they find motherhood so rewarding that they prefer spending time with their rug rats to doing so in the corporate rat race. Guadalupe’s the type of feminist who believes that motherhood is an intolerable burden. The vast majority of women know better.
“Had to give birth?” Nope. Women in this country have several post-conception methods of avoiding childbirth if they choose. For the most part, no pregnant woman “has to give birth.”
“Has to breast feed the child?” Wrong again. A great many women want to do that for good reason, and many of them do, but none of them “has to.” Expressing milk is one way or simply feeding formula is another of getting nutrition to the baby without breast feeding. But again, countless mothers report that breastfeeding is a wonderful and fulfilling way to bond intimately with a newborn. Guadalupe wants us to believe it’s the next thing to breaking rocks in the hot sun.
“The mother counts for nothing.” Uh, no. Somehow in her fevered brain, Guadalupe has come to believe that SB 668 takes all rights away from mothers. Or something. It’s hard to know how anyone could come up with such patent nonsense, but there it is. No, SB 668 instructs judges that 50/50 is the starting point at which they then must consider 20 factors regarding the best interests of the child. Contrary to what the opposition claims, the bill no more requires an even split of parenting time than the man in the moon. Is Guadalupe so entirely ignorant of the plain language of the bill or is she just lying, like so many have before her?
But that’s the good news about Guadalupe. (No, really!) Eventually, she abandons all pretense of reason and says this:
“What did the father do?” said women’s advocate and co-founder of Families Against Court Travesties Adele Guadalupe. “He contributed his sperm.”
In case there was any doubt about NOW’s radical anti-father bias in the matter of children’s rights to both parents, Guadalupe just dispelled it. According to her, fathers take no part in raising children. They’re like reptile males who have nothing to do with their offspring. Amazing. Never mind that all the data on how adult Americans spend their time reveal that to be untrue. Never mind that fathers are doing more hands-on childcare than ever before. And of course never mind that fathers do the lion’s share of supporting the family financially.
But of course to feminists like Guadalupe, having a roof over your head, food on the table and clothes on your back aren’t important. Apparently mothers and children need none of that.
Then of course there’s what she didn’t say. It’s the same thing opponents of shared parenting never manage to mention – the well-being of children. Yes, reams of social science tell us that shared parenting is better for kids than the status quo, but people like Guadalupe still oppose sensible, humane reform.
Up to now, I thought Heather Quick’s frank lies about SB 668 were the bottom of the barrel, but I’m no longer sure. For sheer hateful nonsense, no one quite measures up to Adele Guadalupe.
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