A husband and wife in Tennessee are suing the state, saying that a state-funded foster care and adoption program turned them away because they are Jewish. To the best of my knowledge, neither is queer, so why am I writing about this on a queer website? Because discrimination in foster care and adoption is a very queer issue, and there is federal legislation pending that could end it for everyone, queer and otherwise.
Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram, who live in Tennessee, wanted to adopt a young boy with a disability from Florida, but had to complete Tennessee’s foster-to-adopt certification first, reported NBC News. They were directed by the state to Holston United Methodist Home for Children to complete required foster-parent-training classes and home-study certifications. Someone from Holston, however, told them in an e-mail that they “only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system,” according to the lawsuit, and the couple was unable to find another agency in the area where they could do the training. The couple eventually fostered another child, but lost the chance to give the boy in Florida a home.
Tennessee is one of 11 states that allows discrimination in foster care and adoption if providing such services would conflict with an agency’s religious or moral beliefs: Alabama, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia; all but Alabama and Michigan allow them to do so even if they receive taxpayer money.
There’s more going on with Holston’s refusal of services than just the Rutan-Ram’s situation, though. Holston is also suing the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to challenge the Biden administration rule that bans discrimination “on the basis of religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and same-sex marriage status” by anyone who receives grant money from HHS, reports LGBTQ Nation. They are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ organization. Whether they will succeed remains an open question; although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year in favor of a faith-based foster care agency that refused to contract with same-sex parents, it was a very narrow ruling, based on the specifics of that case, that nevertheless maintained “Governments may continue to enforce neutral, generally applicable anti-discrimination laws that prohibit discrimination based on SOGI [sexual orientation and gender identity],” according to Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Additionally, pending federal legislation could clarify that discrimination has no place in child services. The John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF), which was introduced last year for the seventh time and had its first hearing in the House, would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or religion in federally funded child welfare agencies. (Discrimination based on race, color, or national origin is already prohibited under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.) It also has provisions for training, data collection, resources, and more.
As I wrote in my longer post on the ECDF when it was reintroduced last year, I think the ECDF actually helps protect religious freedom. By ensuring that prospective parents are not disqualified because of whether or how they worship, these pieces of legislation preserve the founding principle of freedom of belief, particularly for members of minority (in this country) faiths. Requiring that taxpayer-funded child placement agencies abide by nondiscrimination laws is not hostile to religion—turning away people from a government-funded service because they fail a religious test is.
Over 423,000 children are currently in foster care, over 122,000 are waiting to be adopted, and nearly 20,000 are aging out of foster care each year without finding a permanent home, according to the latest federal data. While the ECDF will offer protections to all youth in care, LGBTQ youth, who are overrepresented in the foster care system, will be among its key beneficiaries. The majority of LGBTQ foster youth are also youth of color, according to the ECDF Campaign. Additionally, same-sex couples are seven times more likely to foster, and seven times more likely to adopt, than different-sex couples, according to UCLA’s Williams Institute.
In addition to the ECDF, the Equality Act, which passed the House in 2021, is a comprehensive, federal LGBTQ civil rights bill that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in foster care, adoption, and a wide range of other services, including employment, housing, public accommodations, and public education. This range of protections is broader than the ECDF, but the ECDF also covers discrimination on the basis of religion and marital status. Both pieces of legislation are therefore important, and it’s no surprise that experts on LGBTQ families are calling for both to be passed this year. LGBTQ people will benefit. People of all religions will benefit (although people of marginalized ones are more likely to need it). Most of all, though, children will benefit.
If you haven’t yet contacted your members of Congress and asked them to sponsor both bills (or thanked them if they have), please do so now.