It’s legal to discriminate against LGBTQ parents, Jewish parents, and others in adoption and foster care, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Just claim that serving them goes against your religious beliefs. A coalition of LGBTQ, civil rights, child welfare, and faith organizations is fighting this, however—but they need your stories to help change hearts and minds at an upcoming Congressional hearing.
Although federal legislation that would have permitted such discrimination was defeated last year, President Trump is continuing to push for it. He told attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast last month that adoption agencies can discriminate against LGBTQ people or others and still be able to get federal funding, and a recent budget draft supports his desire. The Every Child Deserves a Family Coalition has put out a call to help stop this:
We need your help, and your stories for an upcoming Congressional hearing. Will you share your stories with Congress so that they can act to end discrimination against LGBTQ parents?
At the hearing, members of Congress will question U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Azar about why HHS is providing authorization for foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate based on religious beliefs.
Members of Congress have informed us that the best way for them to prepare for such a hearing is to be armed with stories of their constituents who could be harmed by allowing discrimination against LGBTQ and religious minority or nonreligious parents.
Please help your Representative learn more about you, their constituent, and why you believe that everyone deserves nondiscrimination protections and the same taxpayer-funded benefits and services.
Please share your story here and forward this message to other families in your community!
What about the claim that forcing faith-based adoption agencies to comply with non-discrimination laws or close is forcing them out of business and itself discriminatory, and reduces the homes available to children? As Emily Hecht-McGowan, the former chief policy officer of Family Equality Council, explained to me in 2017, the closing of these agencies because they refused to place children with LGBTQ parents has made “no discernable impact” on children finding homes. First, these agencies did not make that many public placements to begin with. In Boston, Catholic Charities’ own annual surveys showed that nationally, they finalized 2,000 to 2,500 adoptions per year between 2008 and 2011 (when they stopped reporting this data), only about four percent of all adoptions. And the providers that closed transferred all their cases to other agencies. In fact, when Illinois cancelled its contract with Catholic Charities in 2012, the percentage of adoptions performed by public child welfare agencies in the state went up four percent. The reasons why are unclear, but the data argues against the idea that shuttering discriminatory agencies reduces the number of placements.
Share your story today with the Coalition. Remember the positive impact that family stories had on the fight for marriage equality. Equality in adoption and foster care is one of our many battles today. Let’s win it.