Resources for LGBTQ Prospective Foster Parents
May is National Foster Care Month, so before it ends, I’ve updated my list of resources for LGBTQ people considering becoming foster parents—useful all year ’round!
Foster Parenting
Arizona Gov. Allows Discrimination in Adoption and Foster Care, Adding to Recent Anti-LGBTQ Actions
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a bill last week permitting religiously based discrimination in adoption and foster care, his third recent anti-LGBTQ law. At the end of March, he also signed two laws targeting transgender youth.
Michigan Reaffirms Support for LGBTQ Families Even as Legal Settlement Allows Discrimination in Foster Care and Adoption
The state of Michigan must continue contracting with child service agencies that discriminate against same-sex couples, according to the settlement this week of a long-running case whose outcome rested on a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The state’s Children’s Services Agency nevertheless reaffirmed its commitment to supporting LGBTQ people who want to foster or adopt or are already doing so.
Jewish Couple Sues Tennessee for Discrimination in Adoption (and Why All Queer People Should Care)
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.
Lesbian Sues HHS for Funding Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination in Foster Care
A lesbian who wants to become a foster parent for a child in a taxpayer-funded program for unaccompanied refugee children was unable to do so because the government is working through an agency that discriminates against LGBTQ people. Now she’s suing.
Supreme Court Rules Narrowly in Favor of Religious Foster Care Agency but Says Nondiscrimination Laws Still Generally Apply
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia in favor of a faith-based foster care agency that refused to contract with same-sex parents. While this is not the win we might have wanted, it is a narrow loss that one LGBTQ legal expert is still calling “a huge victory.”
Federal Bill to End Adoption and Foster Care Discrimination Introduced for 7th Time
A federal bill has just been reintroduced that would prohibit discrimination in foster care and adoption on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or religion. The John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF) is named for the civil rights leader and congressman who was an original co-sponsor the previous six times the bill was introduced. Might it pass this seventh time through Congress?
President Biden’s LGBTQ-Inclusive Proclamation for National Foster Care Month
President Biden’s proclamation of May as National Foster Care Month returns to the inclusion begun by President Obama, with a mention of LGBTQ youth in foster care—and a reminder of the challenges that remain to bring equity and justice to our foster care system.
“Serving children should not be controversial” — Evangelical Adoption Agency Opens to LGBTQ Parents Nationwide
Bethany Christian Services, the largest Protestant adoption and foster care agency in the U.S., announced yesterday that it will begin placing children with LGBTQ parents nationwide, reports the New York Times.
A Little-Known Piece of Queer Parenting History
Did you know that in the 1970s, queer social workers were quietly placing queer youth with queer foster parents, in defiance of state laws? They were “were creating something radical: state-supported queer families in an era of intense discrimination,” asserts a fascinating new article on the subject.
