Dear Safe Schools Coalition Members and Friends:

 

Casey Family Foundation is a national agency whose mission is to provide and improve—and ultimately to prevent the need for—foster care.

 

Subject: Casey Celebrates LGBTQ Pride Month: LGB Foster and Adoptive Families

 

Please do not reply to this message. Questions should be directed to Tracy Patterson.

June is LGBTQ Pride Month

 

Casey Family Programs is proud to observe LGBTQ Pride Month. In keeping with Casey’s ongoing commitment to Diversity and Anti-Racism, here are some resources.

 

As adults, whether or not we are parents, other relatives or friends play an important role in helping youth develop in the safest and healthiest way. Here are some resources for people who care about youth, regardless of their sexual orientation.

 

Three Simple Things Parents of Straight Teens Can Do http://parentingteens.about.com/od/gayteens/a/parentgayteens2.htm

 

Your teen isn’t gay, so why should you discuss sexual orientation? The answer is simple to parents who want successful teens: we don’t approve of hate. Therefore, we want to actively teach our teens about accepting different groups of people. This is a life lesson that will not only help our own teens mature, but may help to broaden the minds of those around them. Here are three simple things parents can do to educate their teens, regardless of their sexual orientation:

 

1.  Teach your teen tolerance. Teens need to identify with different groups, it’s part of the work of an adolescent. But identifying with one group does not mean that the other group is wrong or bad. Talk to your teen about tolerance of different groups and how to show respect of someone different than you.

 

2.  Promote bullying awareness and support safety initiatives in your teen’s school. There is never any reason why a child – straight, gay, black, Latino, white or female – should not be safe in his or her own school. Call your teen’s school and discover the policy for bullying behavior. Ask if the school has proactive plans on deterring bullying behavior. Find out more about it and offer you help. 

 

3.  Reach out to parents of gay teens and offer your support and friendship. Being friendly is the easiest thing to do and you get to model the behavior you are expecting from your teen.
 

How to Talk to Your Teen About Homosexuality http://parentingteens.about.com/od/gayteens/ht/homosexuality.htm

Part of teaching teens about their bodies and their sexuality is teaching them about alternative sexual orientations. You can do this by talking to your teen. While this is a step-by-step for one conversation, be sure to discuss it more often when you see it in the media or your teen has more questions.

 

Sexual Attraction and Orientation http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/guys/sexual_orientation.html

It's a natural part of life to have sexual feelings. As people pass from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, their sexual feelings develop and change.

 

Understanding Your Gay Teen http://life.familyeducation.com/teen/sexuality/36545.html

 

My Child is Gay, Now What Do I Do? http://www.bidstrup.com/pardata.htm

 

How It Feels to Have a Gay or Lesbian Parent: A Book by Kids for Kids of All Ages by Judith Snow http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560234202

 

Married with children: Study shows lesbian and gay teens want to be parents someday http://www.proudparenting.com/node/1530

Research indicates that lesbian and gay kids want to be married with children by the time they're in their 30's. In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, social scientists have found that many lesbian and gay youth have expectations of spending their adult life in a long-term relationship raising children.

 

Journey into adolescence. A Proud Parenting blogger shares tips for lesbian and gay parents raising teenagers. http://www.proudparenting.com/node/1194 

Lesbian and gay parents can expect that their teens will face some challenging issues related to their entry into adolescence; they might also expect the possibility of their teens encountering the social stigmas often associated with children who are raised within non-traditional families. Therefore, setting a foundation of sound preparation, support and instruction can enable lesbian and gay parents to increase positive developmental outcomes for their adolescent sons and daughters.

 

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Foster and Adoptive Parents

We honor the LGBTQ families that are sources of love and stability for increasing numbers of youth in care.

 

Finding My Father: My Dream Dad Turned Out to be Gay “I had a fantasy of what I wanted in my dream dad: He would be able to support himself and not be taking me in for the check. He would know how to make money and help me figure out how to have a successful career as an architect. He would understand that my past, which includes being beaten, humiliated, neglected and rejected, was not my fault….” http://www.youthcomm.org/FCYU-Features/NovDec2005/FCYU-2005-11-04b.htm

 

Lesbian and Gay Parenting and Foster Care

~       An estimated 10,300 foster children live with a lesbian or gay foster parent, accounting for nearly 3 percent of all of foster children in the United States and 6 percent of foster children living in non-kin family foster care placements.

~       Almost 40 percent of all agencies and 83 percent of public agencies reported making at least one adoption placement with a lesbian or gay man. However, one-third of agencies would reject a gay or lesbian applicant, either because of the religious beliefs guiding the agency, a state law prohibiting placement with GLB parents, or a policy of placing children only with married couples. Additionally, agency heads are more likely to have negative views towards gays and lesbians adopting when they associate such adoptions with greater evaluation and support needs.

~       Among the more than one-third of foster parents who are single, one in seven is a lesbian or gay parent. Single foster parents are more likely than others to be African-American (51 percent) and less likely to be white (31 percent). Foster children of single parents are more likely to be African-American (52 percent) and less likely to be white (26 percent) than children in other family types. Among foster families headed by couples, in contrast, approximately half of foster children are white and about 20 percent are African-American and an additional 20 percent are Latino(a). One recent study of Midwestern youth who are or were in foster care found that almost 7 percent identified as homosexual or bisexual. As of September 2005, 10,000 of the roughly 500,000 children in foster care (2 percent) had run away from their placement. The portion of foster children with a disability is highest among those in same-sex couple households (32 percent). Roughly 60 percent of all adoptions of children in foster care are by their foster parents. Prohibiting GLB people from fostering would cost an estimated $87 million to $130 million nationwide.

~       Prohibiting GLB people from fostering would result in the removal of 9,000 to 14,000 children from existing foster families.

 

Source: Adoption and Foster Care by Gay and Lesbian Parents in the United States, The Williams Institute Publication: http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/Policy-Adoption-index.html

 

State GLB Fostering Policies

·       Nebraska has a policy prohibiting gay people from fostering, but the current enforcement of that policy is unclear (Cooper and Cates, 2006).

·       As with adoption, Utah forbids fostering by unmarried couples (UTAH CODE ANN § 62A-4A-602).

·       A policy banning gay foster parents was recently removed by the Department of Social Services in Missouri and overturned by the state Supreme Court in Arkansas.

 

State GLB Adoption Policies

·       Only Florida forbids “homosexuals” from adopting (Florida Statutes § 63.042(3)), and bisexuals are also apparently disqualified.

·       Mississippi explicitly bans “same-gender” couples from adopting (MISS CODE ANN § 93-17-3-(5)), as does Utah through a ban on adoption by all unmarried couples (UTAH CODE ANN § 78-30-1(3)(b)). However, single GLB people in Mississippi and Utah might be able to adopt.

·       In contrast, some states have policies that either explicitly or implicitly state that sexual orientation cannot be a basis to prevent gay and lesbian people from adopting, including California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the District of Columbia

·       Information and updates for LGB foster parents

 

Web site Addressing LGBTQ Parenting, including Foster Parenting and Adoption

http://www.proudparenting.com/foster_care

 

Foster Parent Blog

http://www.proudparenting.com/user/390

 

One Umbrella, Many People: Diversity in LGBT Communities: Building Awareness of LGBT Diversity.

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/1292.html

 

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