NO to Adoption Discrimination in Congress

A foster care and adoption license to discriminate measure was recently put into a health and human services funding bill in the House Appropriations Committee.

The “Aderholt Amendment” allows foster care and adoption service providers across the country to discriminate against children and prospective parents based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and marital status.

We need your help to tell Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker:  NO ADOPTION DISCRIMINATION in the 2019 Appropriations bill!  We will deliver hard copies to their offices.

Dear Senators Alexander and Corker:

We urge you to act to oppose the Aderholt amendment allowing discrimination in foster care and adoption services in the FY19 House Labor-HHS appropriations bill and ensure that the measure is NOT included in any Senate or final appropriations bill.

It would allow taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption service providers to discriminate against children in care and against prospective parents, based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and marital status.

The measure breaks the cardinal rule of child welfare services: to act in the best interest of the child. This amendment would actually HARM CHILDREN.

This amendment would greatly harm the 440,000 children in foster care, particularly the 117,000 who are waiting to be adopted into loving, forever homes.  There is a crisis in foster care due to the huge shortage of available families for children. Each year, over half the children waiting to be adopted do not find a loving home, and most devastatingly, over 17,000 foster youth age out of care without a forever family.  Those youth are at greater risk of involvement with the criminal justice system, homelessness, unemployment, and being trafficked.

Speak out against this poison pill amendment,; let your leadership know you will not support a funding bill with the measure included, and vote against any appropriations measure that includes such discriminatory provisions.  Thank you for considering our views.

Who's signing

1,052 SIGNATURES
1,250 signatures

Will you sign?

  • John Sonnen
    signed 2018-07-17 12:39:51 -0500
  • Ellen Marguiles
    signed 2018-07-17 12:39:02 -0500
    Ellen Margulies
  • Donna DeStefano
    signed 2018-07-17 12:38:43 -0500
  • Gregory Plemmons
    signed 2018-07-17 12:38:19 -0500
    Dear Senators Corker and Alexander, I have been a pediatrician for over twenty years and find this legislation will do nothing to improve the lives of children, particularly those needing adoption. A multitude of studies indicates that children raised by same-sex parent couples are no different than heterosexual couples. I speak from personal experience and caring for these families for over 20 years.
  • Pooja Patel
    signed via 2018-07-17 12:36:13 -0500
    POOJA PATEL
  • Cathy Pardue
    signed 2018-07-17 12:36:01 -0500
  • Desiree Duncan
    signed 2018-07-17 12:35:54 -0500
  • Ari Baker
    signed 2018-07-17 12:34:05 -0500
  • Winston Harrison
    signed 2018-07-17 12:32:15 -0500
  • Ashley Zabel
    @zabel_zoo tweeted link to this page. 2018-07-17 12:31:57 -0500
  • Isabel Cuellar
    signed 2018-07-17 12:31:40 -0500
  • Ashley Zabel
    signed 2018-07-17 12:31:39 -0500
  • Lisa Burner
    signed 2018-07-17 12:31:11 -0500
  • Anthony Veronico
    signed 2018-07-17 12:30:45 -0500
    This is horrible legislation – I worked for 35 years running an adoption agency – not too sure that the authors actually know what they are doing.
  • JeVerna Haynes
    signed 2018-07-17 12:28:37 -0500
  • Lauren Samuels
    signed 2018-07-17 12:27:51 -0500
  • Jessica Hoover
    signed 2018-07-17 12:26:48 -0500
  • Stan and Jennie Young
    signed 2018-07-17 12:25:56 -0500
  • Jeffrey King
    signed 2018-07-17 12:25:26 -0500
    No legislation PERIOD until the legitimacy of this administration is confirmed.
  • Glenn Ramsey
    signed 2018-07-17 12:24:38 -0500
    Please don’t do this. Allow loving parents, regardless of sexual orientation (whether gay or straight), to adopt children. These proposed restrictions harm both parentless children and couples who wish to adopt.
  • Chris Teague
    signed 2018-07-17 12:24:11 -0500
  • Rebekah Gienapp
    signed 2018-07-17 12:24:02 -0500
  • Peggy Paulson
    signed 2018-07-17 12:23:58 -0500
    As an adopted child, do not prevent qualified people from becoming adoptive parents. Every child needs people who love them. Sexual orientation just doesn’t matter.
  • Shirley Bowman
    signed 2018-07-17 12:21:43 -0500
    Discrimination in any form is just wrong.
  • Hector Bertin
    signed 2018-07-17 12:21:25 -0500
  • Heather Andrews
    signed 2018-07-17 12:20:18 -0500
  • Adam Kalin
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-07-17 12:20:02 -0500
    Please sign the petition: NO to Adoption Discrimination in Congress. Famlies like ours can be denied the right to adopt if this passes. I am so eternally grateful for my family, and would hate to see other adoptive parents not given the same opportunity
  • Rhea Morgan
    signed 2018-07-17 12:19:32 -0500
  • Doug Lechleiter
    signed 2018-07-17 12:19:30 -0500
  • Victoria Harris
    signed 2018-07-17 12:19:19 -0500
    Children just need loving parents regardless of sex, race, religion, orientation, etc!!!

Donate Volunteer Find an Event

connect