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Public Invitation- Ending Discrimination in Adoption and Foster Care

From: The Honorable Pete Stark

via Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

Posted by Melanie Nathan 3-9-10. Every Child Deserves a Family: A Congressional Briefing on efforts to end discriminatory policies that close homes to foster children by prohibiting and restricting adoption and foster placements by LGBT families and unmarried couples.

There are approximately 125,000 foster children waiting to be adopted. With only 50,000 adoptions each year, there is a clear shortage of adoptive parents.  The result is that children, especially minority and special needs children, languish in care and bounce from placement to placement. The 25,000 youth who never find a permanent family and “age out” of the system each year are more likely than nearly any other group to become homeless, incarcerated, or suffer with mental illness or substance abuse.

Despite the need for more adoptive and permanent foster homes, some states have enacted discriminatory bans that prohibit children from being placed with qualified parents due to the parent’s sexual orientation or marital status.  The result is less children being adopted and more children bouncing around the foster care system with no permanency and no security.  In some cases these bans have resulted in a grandparent having to go through costly litigation in order to care for their own kin who are in foster care.

LGBT Caucus – invites you to a briefing to learn more about this issue and what Congress can do to fix the situation.

Date: Thursday March 11th
Time: 1:30-3:00
Location: H-137
The Hill.

Panelists will include:
•    Nakea Page and Kendra Langley- Foster Care Alumni will discuss their experiences in the child welfare system and “aging out” of the system without a family;
•    Uma Ahluwalia-Director of Montgomery County Maryland’s Department of Health and Human Services will discuss the benefits of opening as many adoptive homes as possible to foster children;
•    Charlotte Patterson- Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia will discuss 30 years of research on LGBT parenting and adoption;
•    Gary Gates- Senior Research Fellow at the Williams Institute will discuss research on the fiscal impact of banning and restricting LGBT adoption and foster parenting;
•    Leslie Cooper- Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU will discuss ongoing litigation at the state level to overturn discriminatory adoption bans;
•    Martin Gill- Foster parent engaged in litigation to be able to adopt two brothers he and his partner have been fostering since 2004.

If you have any questions, please contact Jeff Hild  jeff.hild@mail.house.gov.

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