Group homes won't let disabled couple live together

[KamaAina]

http://www.denverpost.com/nationalpolitics/ci_23187191/disabled-couple-seek-life-together-group-home

With the beaming smiles of newlyweds, Paul Forziano and Hava Samuels hold hands, exchange adoring glances and complete each other's sentences. Their first wedding dance, he recalls, was to the song "Unchained ..." "Melody," she chimes in.
They spend their days together in the performing arts education center where they met. But every night, they must part ways. Forziano goes to his group home. His wife goes to hers.

The mentally disabled couple is not allowed to share a bedroom by the state-sanctioned nonprofits that run the group homes—a practice the newlyweds and their parents are now challenging in a federal civil rights lawsuit. ...

The couple had been considering marriage for three years before tying the knot last month, and they contend in their lawsuit that they were refused permission from their respective group homes to live together as husband and wife. The couple's parents, also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said they have been seeking a solution since 2010....

The lawsuit contends Forziano's facility refused because people requiring the services of a group home are by definition incapable of living as married people, and it says Samuels' home refused because it believes she doesn't have the mental capacity to consent to sex.

[HockeyMom]

1. They sound like a very high functioning couple

The agency where I used to work had people like these. If they were capable of understanding marriage and sex, which clearly these two do, the agency would get them their own apartment. Yes, the high functioning consumers could live on their own, usually with a roomie. A caseworker would visit them weekly to check on them, help with finding jobs, budgeting, shopping, etc. Basically, they led a life in the community with just a little help from the agency. I met one such man at work and had lunch with him. I thought he was new staff, until he told me he was a consumer but lived on his own. Good for You!!!! You SHOULD be!

It sounds like this couple should have a similar kind of arrangement.

[loyalsister]

2. grrrr

Disgusting.
Marriage inequality held over from the eugenics movement.
It's a confusing paradox. The argument against people with disabilities marrying was that they might have children.

One weird argument against LGBT marriage equality is that they cant\won't have children.

[chillfactor]

3. what a heart-warming loving story.....

Thank you for bringing it to our attention!

The travesty of state regulations is disgusting. So many people, especially disabled people, will never find the love this couple shares...they should be allowed to live together as a married couple and enjoy the fruits of their love. Kudos to the parents of this couple and the couple themselves for fighting this discrimination. :love ya:

[Xithras]

4. They should be together, but I do have one question.

She's only 36, and neither of them is capable of taking care of themselves, much less another human being (which is why they're in the homes in the first place). If she becomes pregnant, what happens to the kid? Will it be raised in the group home where the nurses would be responsible for it? Or would CPS step in and take it?

[KamaAina]

5. Well, now, you don't know that.

Most likely these two could live just fine in a community setting with the proper supports (such as staff visits once a week or so). There are a lot of people with developmental disabilities in group homes who don't need to be there.

I have no idea what would happen to a baby. I doubt very much s/he would be raised in either of these group homes, since they don't seem to want Mom and Dad to live together.

[Xithras]

6. Possibly.

In the end, I guess that's why we have CPS. They and the courts could determine the fates of any kids that might result from this.