LGBT Parents, Foster Care, Fake News
Caring for orphans and other children in need is Christian
But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. — Mark 10:13
Caring for orphans and other children in need is Christian.
So is basic honesty. Close to a year ago, Donald Trump evoked George Orwell’s 1984 with a mind-blowing assertion during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention: “Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening.”
He and his allies on Fox News constantly refer to factual reporting as “Fake News.” They constantly make claims unsupported by data or evidence, and people often seem to believe them.
Factually, it’s no secret that the Trump Administration opposes LGBTQ equality.
Trump and his friends never miss an opportunity to legalize or otherwise support discrimination against gender and sexual minorities. Whether they’re refusing to allow transgender people to serve in the military, making rules to allow healthcare providers to turn away LGBT people, or subverting gay marriage equality, Trump and crew continuously cement the third-class civil status of queer folk.
What does the President say publicly about LGBTQ equality?
If you listen to him and his supporters, the Administration stands for equality and freedom around the world. They talk up a nebulous State Department initiative to decriminalize same-gender sex in other nations while ignoring that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo already quashed Obama-era policies to pressure African nations to stop putting gay men in prison.
‘I’m sorry, we only employ volunteers and mentors who are Protestant Christian.’
The U.S. government under Trump changed policy to say that it’s ‘Religious Freedom’ when African countries imprison LGBTQ people. Yet Trump tweets about LGBTQ equality, and some people seem to believe he’s sincere.
I’ve already written about Trump’s efforts to justify LGBTQ persecution in Africa:
Trump’s lies about LGBTQ parents are especially egregious —
The administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to stop same-sex parents from legally caring for children in need. The administration is advancing “religious liberty” arguments that not only discriminate against LGBTQ people, but which harm children and facilitate discrimination against members of religious minorities.
Administration officials blatantly lie about the effects of discrimination, and many news authorities credulously repeat the lies even though basic analysis shows Trump claims to be false.
This is happening now—
In April, Miracle Hill, South Carolina’s largest state-funded child services agency, rejected Eden Rogers’ and Brandy Welch’s application to to become foster parents — on the grounds that they are a same-sex couple.
That rejection violated longstanding US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) non-discrimination policy, but the administration issued a waiver in January that lets federally funded agencies refuse to perform services that conflict with their religious values.
LGBTQ parents offer stable homes to needy children at rates higher than any other class of American people.
The lesbian couple are challenging South Carolina’s practice of letting taxpayer-funded child service agencies reject prospective parents on religious grounds. They sued last Thursday, accusing the state and the Trump administration of violating their constitutional rights.
So what’s the lie?
Lynn Johnson, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families within HHS, has repeatedly justified the HHS ruling by claiming that HHS wants to encourage more families to join the foster care system.
She claims that allowing religious agencies to turn away LGBT parents will increase the the number of foster families in the system and allow more homeless children to be fostered or adopted.
Johnson’s claim is clearly false —
She must know it is false. Evidence clearly contradicts her position and by extension the Trump administration’s policy. The American Civil Liberties Administration has called her out. Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, puts it like this:
There are more than 400,000 children in foster care around the country, and today the Trump administration has turned its back on each of them. Many of those children live in group homes, are separated from siblings, or age out of foster care without ever becoming part of a family because of the shortage of foster and adoptive families to care for them. It is despicable that this administration would authorize federally-funded state child welfare agencies to allow caring, qualified families to be turned away because they don’t pass a religious litmus test. Prospective foster and adoptive parents should be judged only on their capacity to provide love and support to a child — not their faith.
Miracle Hill also turns away religious minorities —
As the largest childcare agency in the state, they have refused to certify Catholics and Jews as foster or adoptive parents. They made headlines in 2018 when they turned away a Jewish woman, solely because she’s Jewish.
Earlier, they turned away Aimee Maddonna, a former foster child and mother of three who applied to care for children in need. She says Miracle Hill enthusiastically accepted her application, then set up an interview before final approval. In a conversation ahead of the meeting, Maddonna was asked to state the name of her church.
“By the name, you can tell it’s a Catholic parish, she said. “They immediately responded back with, ‘I’m sorry, we only employ volunteers and mentors who are Protestant Christian.’”
Certifying only Protestants? Then Muslims, Mormons, Hindus, and atheists would also be out of luck.
Why is this harmful to children?
Why shouldn’t state-funded agencies choose the people they’ll work with? What’s wrong with choosing to give homeless children to religiously -minded families?Simple: The interests of vulnerable children MUST come before the interests of taxpayer-funded agencies.
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, member of the Ways & Means Committee, opposed the new HHS policy eloquently: “It’s as if it is not the children, but the social welfare agencies themselves, who require protection.”
LGBTQ parents raise lots of children —
According to the Williams Institute, 114,000 same-sex couples in the United States are raising children, a majority of them through fostering or adopting.
While 68% percent of same-sex couples who are raising children have biological children, an astonishing 32% raise either adopted or foster children. By contrast, only 3% of different-sex couples adopt children. Many fewer become foster parents. Nearly ten times as many same-sex couples raise foster children compared to different-sex couples.
Disqualifying LGBTQ parents on religious grounds dramatically impacts the available pool of parents for children in need, according to lead Williams Institute scholar Shoshana Goldberg.
Dr. Goldberg didn’t examine the effects of religious discrimination in her study, but I speculate that if she had, her conclusions would have been simple. Rejecting potential parents based on their faith must harm children in need.
What is the reality? How are needy kids in South Carolina doing?
Not well at all. Data shows that religious discrimination is hurting them. According to the prestigious academic journal Chronicle for Social Change, needy children in South Carolina are suffering as a direct result of Trump Administration LGBT policies:
The number of children in foster care in South Carolina grew by 26% from 2012 to 2017, while the number of available foster homes decreased.
“HHS’ decision to grant South Carolina’s waiver request allows taxpayer funded discrimination on the backs of South Carolina’s most vulnerable children. Allowing child placing agencies to ignore federal nondiscrimination rules runs counter to the cardinal rule of child welfare: that the best interests of children in care must come first. Allowing child placing agencies to turn away qualified adoptive and foster parents reduces the number of loving families available to the over 4,000 children in South Carolina’s foster care system, and further demonstrates that the Trump administration values a narrow set of religious beliefs over the need to find loving, stable homes for children currently in state care.
South Carolina is a microcosm of the United States.
Homeless children need families. Same-sex parents offer family support at wildly disproportionate rates. As a tiny fraction of Americans, LGBTQ parents offer stable homes to needy children at rates higher than any other class of American people.
The evidence is clear, and it is indisputable.
Yet Trump administration spokespeople continue to lie. They continue to falsely claim that allowing agencies to turn away LGBTQ parent will help kids in need.
They’re wrong, and they must know they are wrong.
Homeless kids don’t suffer from a lack of agencies, but from a lack of prospective parents. The Trump administration is making their situation worse, not better, and Trump lies are literally Orwellian in nature.
Once upon a time, my male partner and I raised a child. He was supposed to fail. His multiple mental illness diagnoses were supposed to guarantee that he could never function independently and happily.
My partner and I proved the system wrong. We loved Brent with all our hearts, and he’s doing great. If we hadn’t been there for him, he’d be in an institution today.
South Carolina and the Trump administration are working hard to stop people like us from taking care of kids in need. And they’re lying about their arguments.
Stopping lesbian and gay people from nurturing children hurts all of us. Isn’t it time to let Trump and Company know that? Isn’t it time to to tell them that we’re on to their lies?
No more falsehoods! It’s time to put aside religious differences and to simply love children who need families. This is something all moral people should agree on.
