Target: Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States
State-sanctioned discrimination towards LGBTQ+ parenting is still a thriving practice in at least 10 states across the U.S. That’s right. In the year 2022, it is still 100% legal to discriminate against people on behalf of their sexual orientation or gender identity in at least 10 states. In these states–which include Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida–licensed welfare agencies are allowed to refuse to place children with same-sex or non-cis couples if it conflicts with the agencies’ morals or religious beliefs.
The American child welfare system is already overburdened. Thousands of children, as it is, are forced to spend their lives bouncing between foster homes with no sense of family love or stability. Kids who aren’t adopted before the age of 18-21 are forced to face adult life, vulnerable and alone. With the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, even more children will be put up for adoption in upcoming years, as many parents won’t have the mental or financial resources to take care of a child. In the face of all this, it is absolutely despicable to turn down eager parents, equipt to provide children with all the love and tools for success they could ever need. Discrimination against qualified LGBTQ+ foster and adoption parents furthers the agendas of red states, while neglecting to put children’s best interests at the forefront.
Reducing the number of families able to provide loving homes hurts children and religion should not be a basis for discrimination. Sign this petition to demand federal legislation protect the rights of LGBTQ+ parents in all states across the country.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear President Biden,
In at least 10 states across the U.S.—a whopping 1/5 of our state body—it is still legal to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. State-licensed welfare agencies are, by law, allowed to refuse qualified LGBTQ+ parents from fostering or adopting children, claiming that doing so conflicts with their morals or religious beliefs.
These laws not only deny LGBTQ+ parents in many states the opportunity to foster or adopt children of their own, but it also denies many children the stability ensured by a life with dedicated parents, in a steady home with endless love and support systems. Thousands of children across the U.S. spend their lives bouncing from foster home to foster home, desperately seeking the stability that many LGBTQ+ parents can offer. It is clear this discrimination does not put the children’s best interests at heart, and only succeeds in furthering the overburden faced by the American child welfare system. Not to mention, in light of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade this past July, the number of unwanted babies born into families either mentally or financially incapable of providing the care these children need is likely to skyrocket. This will leave thousands and thousands of babies scattered in foster homes and in dire need of placement—especially in red states enforcing abortion bans which, ironically, are also the states that reject LGBTQ+ people as adequate parents.
We are asking you, President Biden, to please enact federal legislation to make it legal for all parents—regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity—to foster or adopt children. Every child deserves a family, and every willing family a child.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Karolina Grabowska
801 Signatures