LGBT with Children in Every State
How many LGBT people have children in every state
LGBTQ+ people have historically been left out of conversations about family planning, custody rights, and cultural and legal ideas about what a family should look like. Before the 1970s, it was not unusual for gay or lesbian parent to lose custody of their child—or for their parental rights to be taken away completely—after coming out. Today, LGBTQ+ families continue to contend with discrimination when trying to start a family—whether through fostering, adoption, or assisted reproduction.
Currently, laws that protect LGBTQ+ people in matters of fostering and adoption vary from state to state. Twenty-nine states and Washington D.C. prohibit foster and adoption agencies from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, while 12 states permit these agencies to refuse to provide services to LGBTQ+ people on the basis of religious beliefs.
As recently as June 2021, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to queer parents trying to start families in their ruling on Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The court sided with a Catholic social services agency, which refused to work with same-sex couples applying to foster children, arguing that the agency’s First Amendment rights took precedence over charges of discrimination.
The Journal
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