Anti-LGBT State Laws Target Adoption and Foster Parenting

In the three  years since the Supreme Court legalized sane-sex marriage nationwide, anti-LGBT groups have been desperately looking for state-level victories wherever they can get them. Three states—Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado—will soon weigh anti-LGBT legislation that would allow religiously-affiliated child placement agencies to turn away same-sex couples looking to adopt or foster a child under the guise of “religious freedom”.

Colorado’s bill is called the “Colorado Children First Act”—but LGBT advocates are quick to point out that such prospective laws actually place children second to a debate that has nothing to do the with the quality of parenting they would receive.

“What makes this flavor of anti-LGBT bill especially pernicious is that the people who bear the brunt of such laws are the children in the state foster care system who lose out on families that they desperately need,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Leslie Cooper. Over 100,000 children in the country are waiting to be placed with adoptive and foster families.

Not only do these bills target children, the represent a sort of last resort for anti-LGBT lawmakers and groups, who have so far failed to pass ant abut-LGBT state laws in 2018. If any of these bills passes it would become the first anti-LGBT bill to become law in 2018. This year has mostly seen a string of state-level defeats for anti-LGBT lawmakers and groups.

“Now, all eyes are on the remaining states where there are bills targeting LGBTQ people and particularly targeting children who will be harmed by not having those parents in the pool of potential parents in the system, “said Cathy Oakley, state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign. “These bills are part of a broader effort by opponents of LGBT equality, both in state legislatures and the courts, to use religious freedom arguments to establish a right to discriminate against LGBTQ people.”

There is no explicit language that talks about transgender people but for each of these bills, what they’re saying is an agency doesn’t need to work with anyone with whom they have a religious objection, anyone who doesn’t meet their religious test.

There are already substantial obstacles standing in the way of LGBT people who want to foster or adopt a child. Lambda Legal notes that only six states have explicit protections for prospective transgender foster and adoptive parents, which means that most transgender people are vulnerable to extra scrutiny or denial simply for being transgender. Only a handful of additional states like Oregon and New York have protections based on sexual orientation alone. Seven states—Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, Michigan, Alabama, and Mississippi—have already carved out anti-LGBT religious exemptions for child placement agencies.