The Trump administration wants to winnow the pool of prospective parents by allowing agencies to discriminate against LGBT parents.
Add this to the list of cruel and discriminatory policies the Trump administration has implemented.
Trump is planning to revoke an Obama-era rule that at the moment bans adoption and foster care agencies from discriminating against LGBT people seeking to adopt, Axios reported,
Religious groups who run adoption or foster care agencies oppose the Obama-era rule because it bans them from getting federal funding.
But if Trump revokes the rule, those groups can ban same-sex couples from adopting or fostering children.
Activists who advocate for LGBT families to adopt — such as Julie Kruse, director of federal policy for the Family Equality Council — told the Washington Post that changing the rule would give these religious groups, "a license to discriminate more broadly."
"It's a very dangerous precedent," Kruse told the Washington Post.
Trump has suggested before that he wants to make this change. At the National Prayer Breakfast in February, Trump alluded to wanting to make the change, which Axios reported could come as soon as early July.
Others in the GOP have advocated for similar changes.
In July 2018, House Republicans advanced an amendment by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) on an appropriations bill that would allow adoption agencies who refuse to adopt to LGBT couples to receive federal funding.
According to the amendment:
"The Federal Government, and any State or local government that receives Federal funding for any program that provides child welfare services, shall not discriminate or take an adverse action against a child welfare service provider on the basis that the provider has declined or will decline to provide, facilitate, or refer for a child welfare service that conflicts with, or under circumstances that conflict with, the provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions."
That amendment, however, was removed from the appropriations bill in September 2018 before it passed.
Trump, however, wants to restart the fight to allow discrimination.
The move comes from an administration that has pushed for anti-abortion measures under the guise of being "pro-life."
However, by allowing religious groups to be rewarded with federal dollars despite engaging in blatantly discriminatory policies that winnow the pool of adoptive families, the Trump administration could create a situation in which more kids languish in the foster care system rather than be placed with willing and loving parents.
There's absolutely nothing "pro-life" about that.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
