Mary Rowland, nominated in June by President Trump to be a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seems to have sailed through her confirmation hearing. She’s the only openly LGBTQ person among Trump’s nearly 140 judicial nominees, and has two grown children with her spouse Julie Justicz.
The number of LGBTQ candidates running for elected office this year is higher than ever, and it’s no surprise that many of them are parents. Let’s meet them and their families!
The “myth of gay affluence” has long haunted the queer community, even after much debunking. LGBTQ people are in fact more likely to be in poverty than non-LGBTQ ones. Now, a new study shows that LGBTQ people are also more likely to participate in public assistance programs—and are thus at particular risk when those programs are cut.
Weeks after the Trump administration ostensibly changed its policies of child separation and family detention at the U.S.-Mexico border, and after a court-imposed deadline to reunite separated families, hundreds of immigrant and refugee children are still not with their parents. These policies are only some of several recent moves by the administration and by individual states that show an appalling disregard for the well-being of children.
As legislation moves forward in the U.S. House that would allow adoption and foster care agencies nationwide to discriminate against LGBTQ parents and youth, among others, and 10 states already permit this, Human Rights Watch has released a new five-minute video showing why we should fight this legislation that would limit the number of loving homes for children.
This one’s timely, folks: If you have a senator who is a Democrat, or if they are Republican Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), or Rob Portman (Ohio), use the handy script here to call them today and ask them to sign on to a letter opposing the bill that would allow discrimination in adoption and foster care against LGBTQ prospective parents, LGBTQ youth in care, single or divorced parents, interfaith couples, or people of different religions.
Just two days after a U.S. House committee approved an amendment that would allow publicly funded foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ parents and others based on the agencies’ religious or moral beliefs, a federal court issued a decision saying that Philadelphia can require foster care agencies with city contracts to follow its LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination policies.
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee has approved an anti-LGBTQ amendment to an existing funding bill—an amendment that would allow child service agencies receiving federal funds to discriminate against otherwise qualified prospective parents based on the agency’s religious or moral beliefs. Ten states already allow such discrimination; this would enshrine it in federal law.
Like many of you, I have been appalled by the news of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. As I’ve read of children being torn away from their parents, I know two things: This is not the first time U.S. policy has condoned this–but it should be the last. Here’s what you can do to help stop these tragedies.Â
(A guest post from the Every Child Deserves a Family Campaign.) Do you support LGBTQ foster youth and LGBTQ foster and adoptive families? If so, we encourage you to express your views to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before next Wednesday’s deadline on a regulation proposing changes to how adoption and foster care data is collected.
