30-01-2025
‘Unacceptable' Pa. bill could protect LGBTQ members during adoption process
PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) — Multiple senators have announced plans to introduce a bill that would protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination during the adoption process.
The bill, authored by Sen. Carolyn Comitta, Judith Schwank, Patty Kim and Maria Collett, would prohibit a service provider from denying any person the opportunity to become an adoptive or foster parent or delaying or denying the placement of a child based on the real or perceived disability, race, creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry or any communicable disease, including HIV.
There are 13,000 – 15,000 children in the foster care system in Pennsylvania, with 3,000 waiting to be adopted. However, historically LGBTQ individuals have been excluded as foster and adoption parents, which the bill calls 'unacceptable.'
Thirty-four states already have laws protecting LGBTQ parents from discrimination in the foster care system. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, is one of the only sixteen states that have no protections, the senators noted in the bill.
'For the sake of the children waiting to be adopted and our friends and neighbors in the LGBTQ community, nondiscrimination laws are needed to protect the rights of families and allow more children the chance to find a permanent home,' the senators wrote.
In 2002, Pennsylvania law began allowing both married and unmarried couples to adopt, regardless of whether the couple is same-sex or not. Nationally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of gay marriage in Obergefell vs. Hodges (5-4) in 2015, however, the ruling was never codified.
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