A new year may motivate many of us to ponder new endeavors. For some, this may mean taking the first steps towards parenthood—so I wanted to revisit some of the tips I found most useful as my spouse and I began our own journey. This is not a guide on how to create a family (there are too many options to explore in a column of this length), but rather some suggestions for what you may want to do first in order to start weighing those options.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services yesterday granted South Carolina a waiver so that federally funded adoption and foster care agencies in the state may discriminate based on a person’s religion, LGBTQ identity, or other factors that do not harmonize with the religious beliefs that the agency espouses.
Numerous LGBTQ advocacy and youth organizations have just filed “friend of the court” briefs in the first appeals court case that will decide whether taxpayer-funded child service agencies may cite their religious beliefs to discriminate against prospective foster parents and youth in care.
Lots of good reads (and photos!) as we swing into the end of August, including a big move by the world’s best-selling diaper manufacturer!
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.
It’s Pride Month, and there’s always a lot happening, so let’s round things up! Read on for news and resources you may have missed.
(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.
