Yesterday Congressman
Pete Stark (CA) re-introduced the Every Child Deserves a Family Act
(H.R. 4608), a federal bill that increases the number of qualified
individuals eligible to become adoptive or foster parents by
restricting federal funding for states employing discriminatory
practices in adoption and foster care placements based on sexual
orientation, gender identity or marital status.
Today, Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality
Council, will moderate a panel discussion where experts in the
field of child welfare, social science and the law will discuss why
the Every Child Deserves a Family Act is necessary to ensure we are
doing everything possible to move children out of the foster care
system and into permanent loving homes. The full text of her
statement is as follows:
Congressional Briefing: The Every Child
Deserves a Family Act
March 11, 2010
U.S. Capitol Building, H-137
Statement of Jennifer Chrisler, Executive
Director
Family Equality Council
Thank you all for coming today. I’m Jennifer Chrisler, Executive
Director of the Family Equality Council. On behalf of our partners
at PFLAG – I’d like to acknowledge Louisa Jaggar, President of the
DC PFLAG Metro Chapter who is here with us today – the Society for
the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the American
Psychological Association, I’d like to welcome all of you to this
panel discussion on the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, House
Bill 4806.
I would also like to thank the lead sponsor of this bill –
Congressman Stark – for his unwavering and longstanding commitment
to the health and welfare of children and for his leadership on
this issue.
Congressman Pete Stark has brought to light a critical child
welfare crisis. There are currently 500,000 children in foster care
across the U.S., 120,000 of whom are available for adoption. Each
year, approximately 25,000 of these kids “age out” of the system
-never finding permanent, stable and loving homes of their own.
Yet while there is a shortage of qualified foster and adoptive
parents for these children in need, some states categorically
exclude thousands of prospective parents simply because of their
sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status. This is not
in the best interest of the thousands of children in the foster
care system. Nor is it the best that America can do for these kids.
Currently, Florida is the only state with a statutory ban
explicitly prohibiting adoption by lesbians and gay men. A handful
of other states such as Utah and Arkansas have laws barring
individuals who live with unmarried partners from adopting or
fostering. And the majority of states remain silent on how
prospective lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) foster
and adoptive parents are to be considered, leaving children in the
foster care system vulnerable to the individual biases of agencies,
case workers and judges. This current patchwork of state law,
coupled with proposals to ban placements with gay or cohabiting
people, or giving preference to married couples, being introduced
in state legislatures – such as the one currently being considered
in Arizona – only exacerbates our current child welfare crisis.
The Every Child Deserves a Family Act is a necessary and critical
step in increasing the number of qualified individuals eligible to
become adoptive or foster parents. By restricting federal funding
to states that categorically discriminate in adoption and foster
care placements based on sexual orientation, gender identity or
marital status, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act ensures that
states will consider the best interests of each child by making
individual determinations on a case-by-case basis. The more than
500,000 children in the foster care system deserve nothing less.
There are already 1 million gay and lesbian parents raising about 2
million children in 99.3% of counties across the U.S. There is more
than 30 years of research on this issue – all of which comes to the
same conclusion – that children raised by same-sex parents have the
same advantages, developmental cycles and social and psychological
adjustments as children raised by opposite-sex parents. All of the
major professional organizations in the fields of medicine,
psychology, law, and child welfare have taken official positions
multiple times over in support of the ability of qualified LGBT and
unmarried couples to foster and adopt.
In a letter written to Family Equality Council, President Obama
acknowledged that “For decades we’ve had politicians in Washington
who talk about family values, but we haven’t had policies that
value families….We have to do more to support and strengthen LGBT
families. Because equality in relationship, family and adoption
rights is not some abstract principle…we have to extend equal
treatment in our family and adoption laws. That’s why I’ll be a
president that stands up for American families – all of them.”
Today our panel of experts will provide you with an overview of why
the Every Child Deserves a Family Act is necessary to ensure we are
doing everything possible to open every available door and enable
youth in foster care to find qualified, permanent, loving homes to
call their own.Nakea Paige will share her experience of growing up
in and aging out of the DC foster care system. Uma Ahluwalia,
Director of the Department of Health and Human Services in
Montgomery County, MD will give the agency perspective and will
talk about MD’s experience in implementing affirmative
non-discrimination policies in their foster care and adoption
placements. Charlotte Patterson will provide an overview of the 30
years of scientific research on the outcomes for children raised by
same-sex parents. Gary Gates will provide demographic data on what
LGBT-parented families look like across the U.S. and will discuss
the fiscal impact these kinds of categorical exclusions of
prospective parents have on individual states. Leslie Cooper will
give an overview of the litigation landscape in adoption cases in
some of the states with affirmative bans on and gay adoption. And
finally, Martin Gill will talk about his personal experience – and
the very real implications the FL adoption ban has on the two
brothers he and his partner have been fostering for almost 6 years.