Rep Pete Stark (D-CA) is hosting a panel discussion on the “Every
Child Deserves a Family Act.”Panelists will include foster children
who will discuss their experiences in the foster care system,
parents who have been prevented from adopting their foster children
because of state laws prohibiting gays, lesbians and bisexuals from
adopting, and experts on foster care and LGBT family issues.
Child Deserves a Family Act.”Panelists will include foster children
who will discuss their experiences in the foster care system,
parents who have been prevented from adopting their foster children
because of state laws prohibiting gays, lesbians and bisexuals from
adopting, and experts on foster care and LGBT family issues.
The Every Child Deserves a Family Act takes into consideration the
best interests of children in the foster care system by focusing on
increasing their access to permanent homes through working with
states to eliminate laws, policies, practices and procedures that
categorically exclude potential adoptive and foster parents because
of their sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.
When: March 11, 2010 from 1:30 – 3:00 PM EST
Where: U.S. Capitol, Room H-137, Washington, D.C.
Panelists Include:
- Martin Gill, an adoptive parent, along with his partner of more
than eight years has been raising two foster children of the state
since 2004. They are currently involved in a lawsuit against
Florida’s law that automatically denies adoption by gays and
lesbians. - Leslie Cooper, senior staff attorney for the American Civil
Liberties Union, is the lead attorney in the In re: Gill
lawsuit. - Charlotte J. Patterson, Professor of Psychology at the
University of Virginia, is one of the nation’s foremost researchers
on child development in the context of lesbian- and gay-parented
families. - Gary J. Gates, Senior Research Fellow at the Williams
Institute, UCLA School of Law, is widely acknowledged as the
nation’s leading expert on the demography and geography of the gay
and lesbian population. - Uma Ahluwalia is Director of the Department of Health and Human
Services for Montgomery County, Maryland. Previously, she served as
Principal Deputy Director and Interim Director for the Child and
Family Services Agency in the District of Columbia. - Nakea Paige and Kendra Langley, DC foster care alumni, will
discuss their experiences in the child welfare system and the
challenges they faced in “aging out” of the system without having
found a permanent family. - Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council
will moderate the discussion.
Sponsoring Organizations:
- The Family Equality Council works to ensure full social and
legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families
by providing direct support, educating the American public, and
securing inclusion in legislation, policies, and practices
impacting families. - PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends
through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to
enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end
discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. - The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues is
an association of approximately 3000 psychologists, allied
scientists, and others, who are interested in the application of
research on the psychological aspects of important social issues to
public policy solutions. - The American Psychological Association is the largest
scientific and professional organization representing psychology in
the United States and is the world’s largest association of
psychologists. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology
and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial
associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a
profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human
welfare.