November is National Adoption Month, and the Family Equality Council has launched the “Allies for Adoption” campaign to raise awareness of a very simple thing we could do to help more children in foster care find forever homes: remove the barriers that prevent qualified LGBT people from adopting children.
Here are the sobering statistics:
- 400,000 kids are currently in U.S. foster care system
- 100,000 are eligible for adoption
- Yet 23,500 “aged out” before finding a family in 2012.
- Same-sex couples raising children are four times more likely than their different-sex counterparts to be raising an adopted child and six times more likely than their different sex counterparts to be raising foster children.
- The majority of states have barriers restricting the ability of LGBT people and same-sex couples to adopt children
- Only 19 states and D.C. permit same-sex couples to jointly adopt
- Only 13 states and D.C. permit second-parent adoptions
- Only 6 states explicitly ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in foster care
Here’s the state-by-state breakdown.
What can you do about this?
- Write to your state’s elected officials if you’re in a state that does not give LGBT people equality in foster care and adoption.
- Inform yourself about the federal Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would require all entities receiving federal funding (or contracting with one that does) from discriminating in foster care or adoption on the basis of “the sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status of the prospective parent or child.” Encourage your members of Congress to support the bill.
- Become an Ally for Adoption and help spread the word.
Such a simple solution — allow LGBT people who want to adopt (and are otherwise qualified) to do so. Let’s get on that, shall we?
