Connecticut launches LGBT adoption initiative
Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
Connecticut has launched an initiative to get more LGBT people to foster and adopt, in contrast to other states’ efforts to restrict LGBT adoption rights.
The state’s Governor, Dannel P. Malloy (Democrat), said yesterday that he wanted Connecticut to welcome and embrace LGBT couples adopting or fostering.
We just have to get this word out,” Malloy told the Associated Press, adding: “We have to get more of our children placed with our families in our state.”
Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families aims to have 250 LGBT couples fostering or adopting by January. There are around 100 LGBT adoptive families in the state.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
John Pica-Sneeden, a Connecticut adoptive father said that LGBT couples could often related best to the children, as they too may have been shunned by their parents years ago.
He added: “They’re the ones that look at this child and say, ‘I will never throw you away.’ And that says everything to a child”.
Around 4,300 children are in Connecticut state’s care, and half are not likely to return to their biological families.
PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
Republican-leaning Oklahoma signed a bill this month that protects faith-based organisations who refuse to put children in LGBT homes.
Kansas signed similar laws which prevents any bans on religious groups which often refuse to consider LGBT couples from providing adoption services for the state.
Oklahoma’s decision several weeks ago sparked a backlash among gay-rights groups, which vowed to sue the state’s governor for targeting the state’s “most vulnerable”.
However, the move met with the enthusiastic support of Catholic figures, with Catholic bishops issuing a statement praising the “decade-long tradition” of faith-groups looking after children in care.
