“As a person of faith, I cannot agree with those who oppose this legislation based on freedom of religion. Faith calls us to love, to put the needs of another before our own. Allowing loving LGBTQ families to open their homes to foster children is a blessing to all involved… and should never be illegal.”
Read More“I know that limiting families for children and youth in foster care results in harm. It comes down to a feeling of safety. When I was in care, I knew I couldn’t reveal my identity to my foster parents; if I did, they would kick me out.”
Read MoreFrom trying to get fertility treatments to finding housing, [Charise and Erica] have been literally turned away at the door. The recent passage of Oklahoma Senate Bill 1140 promotes this type of discrimination, with dangerous anti-LGBTQ statues that allow publicly-funded adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ prospective parents, single mothers and interfaith couples, among others.
Read More“When I would tell my foster mom about the type of bullying I was experiencing at school, she just told me to ‘suck it up’ and that I should expect this type of treatment because I am different,” Tristan said.
Read More"Family is made in so many different ways. I really thought that my family would be biologically mine and it would be some how 'less than' if it happened any other way. That hasn’t been the case at all. We have found abundant love.... I really feel like Izzy and Isaac were waiting for us all along."
Read MoreHe realizes that any time, their children could have been forced to back to their parents, or they could have faced a homophobic judge. But their family was lucky — their road to adoption was stressful, but legally straightforward.
Read MoreThey may seem to be the ideal prospective adoptive parents. Yet when they reached out to state-contracted child placing agencies to move forward with adoption, they were turned away because they are a same-sex couple.
Read MoreHe recounts not only being shamed for his sexuality, but also forced into following his foster parents’ religious practices and beliefs. During his six years in foster care, Terry was placed with over 20 different families — an experience not unique amongst LGBTQ youth.
Read More“We were running away from a community that was our community, and also a community that needed to see us, visibly... They needed to understand that we are out there and we deserve the same rights and laws as them."
Read More“I would just say for any parents looking to adopt, the process at times can seem extremely tedious and it could be hard — the waiting and the process they put you through. But if you want it in your heart it would be beyond anything you can imagine.”
Read MoreThe process of adoption brought Christopher Harris through three different agencies, having faced discrimination at the first two. Although he superseded all requirements — having five recommendation letters and taking additional parenting courses on top of extensive paperwork — Harris often found himself waiting for months to years with no word from the agencies where he had placed all his resources.
Read More"Grandma told us that before she gave the kids up to foster care, she asked her church for help finding these kids a home. No one came forward. When she went back to church and told the pastor that the kids were with two gay men, all of the sudden the church was full of options. But it was too late, Grandma realized that these kids are the kids that Wes and I have been dreaming of..."
Read MoreBrittany and Jessica are still interested in adopting a child from foster care. But despite helping overturn the state’s ban on same-sex adoption, Mississippi lawmakers doubled-down on discrimination in 2016, passing HB1523, a sweeping “license to discriminate” law that authorizes Mississippi child welfare providers to refuse to work with LGBTQ prospective parents.
Read MoreDrew Pierson is a Texas dad who first tried to adopt and foster over a decade ago, but was pushed away and discriminated against by several child-placing agencies for being a gay man.
Read MoreJason and Joe, a gay couple living in Dallas, fell in love and knew immediately they wanted to build a life together. But the couple’s dreams would be challenged by bigotry and bias against same-sex families.
Read More“As long as I can remember, I have been in DCF care….My mother was amazing. I remember always wanting to tell her that I was gay but just couldn’t muster the courage to. We had one problem though. Money. Every month, on the last week, we would go out to every church we could to get food to last us until the next food stamp payment. To this day I can't stop feeling like I'm not allowed inside a church because of who I am.”
Read MoreThe Nabozny family's adoption success story is a perfect example of the kind of loving family we stand to lose if states are allow to grant a #LicenseToDiscriminate against LGBTQ people in the foster care and adoption system.
Read More“In foster care we try so hard to please everyone as best as we can on top of dealing with any past demons. I always feared I would be kicked out of a household for being who I was or not be able to get adopted. Unfortunately, I never did get adopted, but the independence and confidence I gained from that was definitely helpful for me. I began to come out to my friends and other foster youth and was able to embrace and accept who I was.”
Read More“To this day I can still not figure out why the department thought that it was a good idea to put an LGBTQ youth in a Christian organization that is openly against LGBTQ. While with this organization I felt like I was a prisoner and could not openly be who I was.”
Read More“Even worse was having to join [my foster parents] when they would go on anti-LGBT rants just so I could feel secure in that I wouldn’t be kicked out of their home. My story isn’t all bad. Eventually, I became comfortable in who I was – I made friends in high school who identified on the spectrum. They made me feel safe and helped me to understand that I wasn’t an abomination – I’m just human. “
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