Discrimination and misinformation may be keeping many LGBTQ people in the U.S. and U.K. from becoming foster or adoptive parents, according to two recent studies—but resources are available to help!
New year, new endeavors! For some, this may mean taking the first steps towards parenthood—so I want to revisit some of the tips I found most useful as my spouse and I began our own journey.
The past two years have seen many great books about starting and raising families as an LGBTQ person, as well as books for all parents wanting to raise children with an understanding of LGBTQ identities. Each offers something different, though, so here’s my guide to help you find what’s right for you.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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?
