For the first time, a president has been fully inclusive of LGBTQ parents in a proclamation for National Foster Care Month or its counterpart, National Adoption Month. We still have a long way to go before equality in foster care and adoption, however.
In his proclamation last Thursday, President Obama said:
With so many children waiting for loving homes, it is important to ensure all qualified caregivers have the opportunity to serve as foster or adoptive parents, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. That is why we are working to break down the barriers that exist and investing in efforts to recruit more qualified parents for children in foster care.
That’s the first time he or any president has mentioned either sexual orientation or gender identity in a proclamation for National Foster Care Month. For a related observance, National Adoption Month (October), Obama mentioned sexual orientation alone in his 2014 proclamation.
He’s been fairly inclusive in other proclamations—including two-mom and two-dad families in Mother’s and Father’s Day proclamations in 2010 and in his 2013 National Family Week proclamation, as I detailed a couple of years ago. He has issued a Pride Month proclamation in every year of his presidency. (Bill Clinton was the first to do so, but the only one before Obama).
Still, only six states have laws banning discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The majority are silent or effectively restrict it by not allowing same-sex couples to marry and banning unmarried couples from fostering.
And despite the president’s inclusive words, it is Congress that is center stage to ensure children in foster care have access to as many qualified parents as possible. Later this month, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF) will be reintroduced into both Houses. The bill would halt federal funding for foster care or adoption programs that discriminate against prospective parents because of their marital status, gender identity, or sexual orientation, or the sexual orientation or gender identity of the adoptive child. It is modeled after the 1994 Multiethnic Placement Act that prohibits discrimination in adoption and foster placements based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.
This is the fourth Congress to consider ECDF. It keeps getting more sponsors, but has died in committee each time. Will this Congress have more sympathy for the many children in need of homes? Or will victory go to “religious freedom” bills that allow foster care and adoption agencies receiving public funds to discriminate? Stay tuned for more on how you can encourage your members of Congress to support the bill.