House Bill Would Penalize States Banning LGBT Adoption

US Representative Peter Stark (D-CA) introduced the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would take federal funds for child welfare services from states that ban people from adoption or foster programs based on their gender identity, marital status or sexual orientation.

"It is unacceptable that states are denying children healthy, loving homes simply because of a potential parent's sexual orientation or marital status," Stark said.  "The Every Child Deserves a Family Act ensures that the best interests of children are the only criteria for finding adoptive and foster parents."

The bill, introduced earlier this month, would provide homes to the thousands of children that “age out” of the child welfare system without finding homes.

“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,” Stark said.

Stark’s bill would levy the financial penalty on at least five states: Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Nebraska and Utah, for having explicit adoption bans of various types; Florida being the only state that specifically prohibits same-sex couples from adopting.

“This legislation would simply prohibit any entity that receives Federal child welfare funds from denying or delaying adoption or foster care placements based solely on the prospective parent’s marital status or sexual orientation,” Stark said.  “States and child welfare agencies that fail to end discriminatory practices would face financial penalties.”

The premise of Stark’s bill, that discrimination in any form is a bad thing, harkens back to the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act, legislation that Stark helped enact in 1994 to bring an end to racial discrimination in foster care and adoption placements.

Despite the benefits of such a bill to the LGBT community, there are only a few representatives supporting the bill.  As of Oct 30 the bill has 12 cosponsors:

Shelley Berkley[NV-1]
Raul M. Grijalva [AZ-7]
Alcee L. Hastings [FL-23]
John Lewis [GA-5]
Steven R. Rothman [NJ-9]
Janice D. Schakowsky [IL-9]
Chaka Fattah [PA-2]
Luis V. Gutierrez [IL-4]
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.
Gwen Moore [WI-4]
Linda T. Sanchez [CA-39]
Robert Wexler [FL-19]