Fear!

We are afraid to adopt children, because of the fear of far right-wing violence against them if they adopt.

LGBTQ+ people want to foster or adopt kids, but fear of discrimination stops them (exclusive)
That's among the findings just released from a study by Gallup and the children's charity Kidsave.
The Advocate
By TRUDY RING
JANUARY 24 2024

Thousands of American children need foster or adoptive homes, and many LGBTQ+ people would love to provide them. But there’s a problem — some of these LGBTQ+ people are reluctant to step up due to fear of discrimination.

That’s among the findings of the Americans’ Views of U.S. Foster Care study, conducted by Gallup, the well-known polling organization, and Kidsave’s EMBRACE Project. Kidsave is a nonprofit dedicated to helping older kids in foster care, and EMBRACE — which stands for Expanding Meaningful Black Relationships and Creating Equity — is aimed at improving the outcomes for Black foster youth. The findings regarding LGBTQ+ participation were released Wednesday morning.

LGBTQ+ Americans are more interested in becoming foster or adoptive parents than their straight and/or cisgender peers, Gallup reports. Thirty-seven percent of LGBTQ+ adults have seriously considered fostering a child, and 32 percent have seriously considered adoption, compared with 23 percent and 15 percent of non-LGBTQ+ adults, respectively, according to the study. Women from the LGBTQ+ community express interest at a higher rate than men.

But more than a third of the LGBTQ+ adults surveyed said fear of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is a barrier to becoming foster parents or adopting from foster care. Men are more likely to fear discrimination than are women.

When I attended the tenth anniversary of marriage equality here in Connecticut there dozens of children running around the party. Also I know of a half of dozen children raised by LGBTQ+ parents and the children are straight!

Meanwhile, “fear of facing discrimination is holding back potentially millions of LGBT families and individuals who are serious about caring for children in need of a home,” says the Gallup report. “Family service organizations raising awareness about perceptions of discrimination and addressing those concerns could potentially boost the number of LGBT people open to taking the first step toward fostering children or adopting from the foster care system.”

This proves that the right-wing conservatives still think being LGBTQ+ is a choice.