Showing posts with label LGBT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LGBT. Show all posts

Thursday, December 6, 2018

The Crap Tank Center For American Progress Promulgates More Propaganda To Proffer More Profit Trafficking Tiny Humans

The religious exemption in adoption has nothing to do with what one likes to do in the bedroom, it is about chattel law.

You cannot split the ownership of a child.

In chattel law, the mother has a position of law but the father, depending on the situation, has a different position in law.

One must always keep in mind that there are no constitutionalities in child welfare, like due process, equal treatment under the law being guilty until proven innocent, and the phenomenon of anonymous reporters being able to submit evidence, that can never be challenged, even if one is lucky enough to have legal representation of an attorney who actually thinks violating civil rights is just pro forma when it comes to dealing with "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth.

Same sex unions indicate the legal dilemma of unspecified rights under chattel law.

Seriously.

Besides, if you place a legal ban on adoptions based upon one's identity, then you can do the upsale on tiny humans in the re-homing experience.

No one regulates the after market of public adoptions.

But that is not why I am upset.

The crap tank called the Center for American Progress is excreting more propaganda for the industry of trafficking tiny humans and I wish to capture all facets of the propaganda for SCOTUS.

The only "child welfare crisis" is that all these Child Placing Agencies and Crap Tanks traffic tiny humans.

North American Council on Adoptable Children which is a 501c3 based in Minnesota.
NACAC promotes and supports permanent families for children and youth in the U.S. and Canada—especially children and youth who are or have been in foster care and those with special needs.
Voice for Adoption sounds like a campaign finance lobbying otherwise known as money laundering operation
"Voice for Adoption (VFA) develops and advocates for improved adoption policies. Recognized as a national leader in special needs adoption, VFA works closely with federal and state legislators, as well as other child welfare organizations, to make a difference in the lives of the 112,000 children in foster care who are waiting to be adopted and the families who adopt children from foster care."

Religious exemption laws exacerbating foster and adoption 'crisis,' report finds

Laws allowing child placement agencies to deny LGBTQ prospective parents are worsening the current “child welfare crisis,” according to a new report.

Religious exemption laws allowing child placement agencies to deny LGBTQ prospective parents from fostering or adopting are exacerbating the current “child welfare crisis,” according to a new report from the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), Voice for Adoption and the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

“Turning away LGBTQ prospective parents by asserting a religious exemption or taking advantage of a lack of state nondiscrimination law is a violation of this group’s rights,” the report states. “It also negatively affects the already strained child welfare system, ultimately harming the children in its care.”

“CHILD WELFARE CRISIS” The crisis is manufactured to maintain the industry of trafficking tiny humans.

In 2017, there were about 443,000 children in foster care across the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Each year, some 50,000 children are adopted through the U.S. child welfare system, but about 20,000 others “age out” before being placed with an adoptive family, according to HHS.

In addition to helping place more children in permanent homes, the CAP report claims taxpayers could save hundreds of millions of dollars by removing barriers blocking LGBTQ people from becoming adoptive parents.

“Each child adopted from foster care, even with adoption assistance support, reduces state and federal spending by almost $29,000 annually when compared with those children who remain in foster care,” the report states. “If the child welfare system finds adoptive families for just 1,000 ten-year-old children who would otherwise have aged out of foster care at 18, a rough estimate suggests it would save $230 million of taxpayer money over eight years.”

The report warns that turning qualified prospective parents away will add unnecessary stress to “an already stressed system,” and it notes LGBTQ people represent a an “important subgroup of potential parents.”

“Same-sex couples raising children are seven times more likely to be raising a foster child and seven times more likely to be raising an adopted child than their different-sex counterparts,” the report states, citing data from the UCLA’s Williams Institute. “They are also more likely to adopt older children and children with special needs, who are statistically less likely to be adopted.”
Despite the needs of children in the child welfare system and the willingness of LGBTQ prospective parents, the report notes there are significant barriers in place that are preventing them from being matched.

“WAIVER TO DISCRIMINATE" This is nothing but propaganda to distract from the money laundering and campaign financing to continue profiting from the trafficking of tiny humans.

At present, 10 states — Alabama, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia — have laws allowing religiously affiliated placement agencies to turn away LGBTQ parents, and even refuse to place LGBTQ children.

Frank J. Bewkes, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress and one of the report’s authors, told NBC News these religious exemption laws “reduce the pool of qualified parents.”

“We are not in the position to turn any qualified parents away,” he said. “That is not in the best interest of children … [There are] too many people in care and not enough homes to take them in.”

The report cites researchthat demonstrates children raised in same-sex households are just as emotionally and physically healthy those raised by straight couples.he first legislation to allow religious exemptions for child placement agencies was passed in North Dakota in 2003, which allowed agencies to refuse to participate in placement that violated the agency’s “written religious or moral convictions or policies,” and still receive government contracts. But after nearly a decade without other states following suit, such laws have been gaining momentum. Two states passed such a law between 2012 and 2016, three did so in 2017 and four in 2018 alone, according to CAP.

These laws have the potential to affect not only LGBTQ prospective parents but any prospective parent who does not fit the agency’s definition of a suitable family. In March of this year, South Carolina made headlines when Miracle Hill, the largest foster agency in the state, turned away Beth Lesser and her husband for being Jewish, referring them to a different agency.

“To say we can go somewhere else is like saying you can’t use this state-funded hospital, but you can go to the one down the street,” Lesser told the Greenville News.

Earlier this week, 75 civil rights, child welfare and faith organizations sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar asking him not to grant South Carolina’s request to exempt Miracle Hill from federal nondiscrimination law.

“Granting South Carolina’s request would upend HHS’s responsibility to ensure that states are properly caring for the nation’s children by explicitly permitting a provider to put its own interests ahead of the best interests and explicit rights of the children in its care,” the letter states. “In addition, an exemption would sanction taxpayer-funded discrimination by organizations providing a government service, violating a host of constitutional and statutory protections.”

Currey Cook, an attorney at LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal said the implications of granting “a waiver to discriminate” for organizations funded with taxpayer dollars, such as Miracle Hill, “are enormous.”“To allow faith-based agencies to put their beliefs ahead of the wellbeing of children in the state’s care is not only unconstitutional, but more importantly, it is harmful to the very children agencies are paid by the government to care for,” Cook said.

These religious exemption proposals are also being introduced at the federal level. In July of this year, Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., unsuccessfully introduced an amendment to the 2019 appropriations bill that, had it passed, would have slashed 15 percent of the federal funding for child welfare services programs to states that enforced nondiscrimination protections in child placement.
Similarly, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wy., and Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., introduced last year the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, which aims to prevent the federal government from taking action against any child welfare agency that “declines to provide, facilitate, or refer for a child welfare service that conflicts with the provider's sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” The bill is still pending in the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources.

In a statement supporting the bill, Rep. Kelly called it “100 percent inclusive and child-focused” and noted that “faith-based organizations have historically played a heroic role in caring for our country’s most vulnerable kids.”

“There is no good reason why any of these care providers should be disqualified from working with their government to serve America’s families simply because of their deeply-rooted religious beliefs,” Kelly said in the statement. “When it comes to helping kids and making families stronger, all service providers – religious or otherwise – should have a seat at the table. That’s what this bill is about."
Bewkes cautioned that we have not seen the last of religious exemption laws. He said he expects a “ramping up” of proposed legislation in the next legislative session. “This is one of the battlegrounds for LGBTQ equality,” he added.

The lion's share of U.S. states no have explicit protections for LGBTQ prospective parents, according to Movement Advancement Project(MAP), an LGBTQ think tank. Three states (California, New Jersey and Rhode Island) and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination by adoption and foster care agencies and officials based on both sexual orientation and gender identity, and an additional six states (Oregon, Wisconsin, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and Nevada) offer some adoption and foster care discrimination protections based sexual orientation alone, according to MAP.

THE COURTS

Recently, religiously affiliated child placement agencies and LGBTQ prospective parents have been turning to the courts to decide their fate as foster and adoptive parents.

In Philadelphia, Catholic Social Services is suing the city for the right to receive government contracts even if it refuses to place children with LGBTQ parents, in violation of the city’s nondiscrimination policy. Thus far a federal judge has rejected the Catholic Social Services’ request for a preliminary injunction, holding that the city’s nondiscrimination law does not violate the organization’s rights.

And in Texas, a lesbian couple was turned away by a foster agency because they did not “mirror the holy family.” Lambda Legal is suingthe HHS and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on behalf of the couple for “unlawful funding” of child welfare organizations that accept federal dollars but refuse to work with same-sex couples. The case is still pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

CASE STUDIES: TEXAS & MICHIGAN

The CAP report undertakes case studies of Michigan and Texas, two large states that have adopted relatively broad religious exemption laws. Bewkes described the situation in these states as “pretty bleak,” and the report describes an acute placement crisis in each of them.

“Nationwide, 28 percent of youth had been in foster care for two or more years in fiscal year 2016,” according to the CAP report, which cited HHS data. “In that same period, 38 percent of Texas youth and 52 percent of Michigan youth had been in care for two or more years.”

In Texas, which has had a religious exemption law for child placement agencies since 2017, the number of foster and adoptive homes working with licensed child placement agencies has decreased nearly 40 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to data from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

And in Michigan, which has had a religious exemption law for child placement agencies since 2015, the number of licensed foster homes dropped by more than 20 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The report also highlights how LGBTQ-accepting agencies in these states may be inaccessible to some prospective parents because of geography.

“We found they are actually spaced quite far apart,” Bewkes said of LGBTQ-accepting agencies. “If you’re in El Paso, there are no agencies that have explicit policies that are welcoming. You’d have to drive 350 miles to Lubbock, Texas, to find an agency that is welcoming,” he said, adding, “that’s in a different time zone.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

CAP ended its report with recommendations for the federal government, state governments and state-licensed child-placing agencies to help address the current “child welfare crisis.”

The organization recommended that a law be passed at the federal level that “explicitly prohibits state-licensed child placing agencies that receive federal funding, or that contract with those that do, from discriminating against or turning away qualified LGBTQ prospective foster or adoptive parents.” And, in the absence of federal protection, CAP recommended that “state legislatures should pass into law explicit nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ prospective parents — both adoptive and foster.”

The report also recommended that LGBTQ-welcoming child-placement agencies make their policies explicit by, for example, posting nondiscrimination policies to websites, as these are often the first place prospective parents go when considering fostering or adoption. The report also encouraged states and child placement agencies to increase their recruitment efforts to all prospective parents, especially those who identity as LGBTQ, as this population has a higher propensity to foster and adopt.

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Friday, August 4, 2017

CONYERS: More Than 30 House Judiciary, Armed Services & LGBT Equality Caucus Democrats Urge Secretary Of Defense & Joint Chiefs Of Staff To Not Comply With Trump's Unconstitutional Transgender Ban


Washington, D.C. – More than 50 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, Armed Services Committee, and the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus today wrote to Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. to urge that they not comply with any unconstitutional directive to ban transgender individuals from serving in the United States military. 

Today’s letter was led by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA). In addition to the letter, Reps. Conyers, Smith, Nadler, and Cicilline released the following statement: 
“President Trump’s recent Twitter announcement banning military service by transgender individuals is not only bad policy, it is unconstitutional. It defies common sense to deny the military these service members' mission-critical skills.  No American who is willing and able should be denied the honor and responsibilities that come with serving in our Armed Forces solely on the basis of their status as the member of a protected group.

“Unfortunately, President Trump’s proposed ban is yet another troubling sign of his willingness to make impulsive policy decisions while ignoring military leadership. We appreciated the measured response of Secretary Mattis, General Dunford, and other military leaders in response to President Trump’s rash announcement of a proposed discriminatory and unjustified ban on military service by transgender individuals. We would urge President Trump to stop making policy via Twitter and to consult America’s professional military leadership before making decisions that affect the lives and safety of our citizens.”

Thousands of transgender individuals are currently serving in the United States Armed Forces. Trump’s July 26th Twitter announcement to ban transgender individuals from the military has received much backlash. More than 50 retired senior military officers recently released a statement opposing the ban on the grounds it would degrade military readiness. Trump’s announcement is particularly troubling in light of recent news reports regarding President Trump’s meetings with Secretary of Defense Mattis and other military leaders to discuss the war in Afghanistan, in which he complained that the U.S. is ‘losing’ and insinuated he should ignore strategic advice from high-ranking military officials by likening the war to the renovation of a New York City restaurant. 


Image result for klinger

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Monday, June 2, 2014

Second Parent Adoptions Forum: 7:30 p.m. Friday June 13th; A Sneak Preview of LGBT Rights Hearing

Dear Friends:

The movement for LGBT rights is a tidal wave of social change moving through Michigan and the Country.  One of the less well understood aspects of this movement that's in U.S. courts right now is the denial of same sex couples' right to adopt their partner's children.  Without the right to such an adoption, children can't benefit from one of their parents health care coverage or have a second parent to visit them in a hospital should the child becomes sick. If one of the parents dies, will the child have a legal parent or could they be thrown into the foster care system?!  It's just not right that a caring parent of a child be denied the opportunity to apply for parental adoption rights. 

You are invited to attend a free community forum on Second Parent Adoptions to be held at 7:30 p.m. June 13th at the Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church located at 23925 Northwestern Highway in Southfield.  Featured speakers include:

1. Jay Kaplan, the Michigan ACLU's LGBT Legal Project staff; Jay Kaplan will be preparing testimony on this issue and on same sex marriage in the federal 6th Circuit Court this summer. 
2. Rep. Jeff Irwin, sponsor of legislation to legalize second parent adoptions;and
3. James and Jason, parents of an infant girl, who were married in March shortly after Judge Bernard Friedman stuck down Michigan's ban on same sex marriage. That ruling was appealed to the 6th federal Circuit Court. 

This special program is made possible by a grant to the Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) by the Michigan Roundtable's Equity Network.  


You can also register or get more information, by calling Randy Block at 248-549-5170.


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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Conyers: President Obama’s Support for Gay Marriage A Courageous Stand


     

(WASHINGTON) – Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) applauded President Obama’s support for marriage equality for same-sex couples.  Ranking Member Conyers is an original cosponsor of H.R. 1116, the “Respect for Marriage Act” which would repeal the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA).  As Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee during the 104th Congress, Representative Conyers opposed DOMA in 1996.      
               
U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.
“I commend President Obama for his support of marriage equality.  The right to choose whom to marry is not just a civil right, but a fundamental human right.  That is why I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 and support its repeal today.  And it is why  I strongly support President Obama taking a stand on this important moral issue.  President Obama and Vice President Biden have taken courageous, sound, and appropriate positions supporting equal rights for all Americans.”



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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Michele Bachmann, gay-curing theocrat


Michele Bachmann, gay-curing theocrat

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Federal LGBT Youth Summit

Federal LGBT Youth Summit

June 6, 2011
Washington, DC

Remarks as prepared for delivery 
Hello, and thank you all for being here today.

I want to thank Pam Hyde our Administrator at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for that introduction and for the amazing work she does protecting and improving the mental health of millions of Americans.

I also want to recognize Bryan Samuels and David Hansell from the Administration on Children and Families for their inspiring work with LGBT youth.

It’s my honor to welcome you to the first ever Federal LGBT Youth Summit. It’s great to see such a big crowd for this important event.  It’s also great to see so many students and young people awake before 9AM during the summer!

The goal of this summit is to bring together youth along with leaders from non-profits, advocates and the federal government to take on the issues facing LGBT youth in our country.

As the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, I lead a department that touches millions of Americans every day and our responsibilities are wide ranging.

We provide health care to seniors, we fund research to find new cures and medical breakthroughs and we give young children a place to start their educations.

We also have a responsibility to Americans of all ages to provide the health care and safe, nurturing communities they need to thrive.

And since President Obama took office he has led a commitment, shared by all of us in the Administration, to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans have a chance to reach their full potential.

But unfortunately, we know that too often the needs of LGBT people, particularly young people – are not met.  At least not as well as they should be.

On Wednesday I met with a young man named Caleb Laieski. Caleb shared with me the story of his being bullied in school.  He experienced many of the same things that boys and girls of every age and sexuality experience in school.  Taunting, name-calling, being pushed and shoved, and just being ignored.  All because of his perceived sexuality.  When he was a freshman in high school, an older boy threatened to stab Caleb.  He complained to his school and they did nothing.  A few months later, the same bully drove his car onto the sidewalk where Caleb and his friends were standing.

That was the last straw for Caleb, shortly after that he dropped out of high school and got his GED.  Still for others, the outcome can be much worse. While meeting with Caleb, he told me about a close friend who committed suicide after being tormented at school just because of who she was or who people thought she was.

No young person should feel like the only way to stop being bullied is to take their own life.  And no teen should feel like they have to leave school and compromise their whole future because of the cruel actions of others.  As a mother, it breaks my heart. And it stiffens my spine.

But what makes Caleb’s story special is what he did next.  Caleb first worked with his own school district to change its policies around bullying and harassment by including clear protections for LGBT students in the student handbook.  Then he sent a letter to every school district in Arizona asking them to do the same thing.   Since then he’s gone to his state Legislature in support of a bill to stop bullying of all kinds in Arizona schools.

And now Caleb has decided to come here to Washington and spend a month advocating and educating Members of Congress and the Administration to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would prohibit discrimination against public school students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.   Caleb told me he’s here to speak for LGBT youth who can’t speak for themselves.  Caleb is actually with us here today.  Caleb would you stand and be recognized…

Caleb, and young people like him, should not have to stand alone.  That’s why this President and his administration have continued finding ways to help LGBT youth live free of violence and thrive in every stage of their lives.  This is especially true at HHS where this kind of work is vital to our mission.

It led us to partner with the Departments of Education, Agriculture, Defense, Interior, and Justice to form a Federal Interagency Task Force on Bullying to create ways to decrease bullying and to establish programs and ideas to aid victims.

And last summer we brought together 150 top state, local, civic and corporate leaders and youth for the first-ever National Bullying Summit.

Some of us also did our small part individually by joining the “It Gets Better” campaign and sending supportive video messages to LGBT youth.  I made one, and so did President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And in March, President Obama held the first White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. I was so proud to be at the White House that day as we launched a new website called StopBullying.gov, a one-stop shop where kids, teens, parents and educators can go online to learn about preventing or stopping bullying.

We know that as strong as a child or young adult might be, they are still dependent on the adults around them to accept them and show them that there is nothing wrong with who they are. Their parents.  Their teachers. Their neighbors. Their mayors, governors, Senators, Congressmen, and, yes, their President.

A study our department is releasing today found heightened levels of “unhealthy risk behaviors” like tobacco use, substance abuse, and suicidal behavior in LGBT youth. But we know that these behaviors are not a result of who these young people are, they are a result of the discrimination, bullying, violence and poor relationships at home they can experience in their day to day lives. That’s a tragedy. And that’s why we need to continue to build support for LGBT youth and create the protective environments needed to reduce these behaviors.

We want to get our programs and services to a place where we are no longer just reacting to problems facing LGBT youth.  Taking the example of people like Caleb, we know that we can do better to address the many needs of LGBT youth.

That means access to a health care system that understands the unique needs of LGBT adults and youth.

The health reform law, the Affordable Care Act, is a historic step towards creating that system.  It prohibits insurers from denying coverage to children just because they have a condition like asthma or diabetes and it extends that protection to everyone in 2014.  It also allows those of you who have recently graduated from high school to stay on your parent’s health plan until age 26. And beginning in 2014, the law will bring health care coverage to 32 million Americans who are currently without insurance.

But the Affordable Care Act is just the start.

In March of this year, on the order of the President, our department completed a report on recommendations to improve the lives of LGBT Americans.  It included suggestions to improve the ability of doctors and nurses to relate to LGBT patients, to enhance the ability of local agencies to support LGBT populations, and to make sure that domestic violence and anti-bullying resources are accessible to LGBT communities.

At the same time many of our agencies continue to work every day to improve the lives of LGBT youth.

For example, we’re working within our child welfare system to place LGBT foster children in loving homes.

And just recently, we released a report with recommendations for providing the best possible care in shelters for homeless LGBT youth.

And along with our department’s LGBT Coordinating Committee, we’ve also created a new workgroup within our department to address the behavioral health needs of LGBT youth and their families.

So we’ve been working hard at this.

But as all of you know, ensuring a bright future for LGBT youth doesn’t just happen here in Washington.  All around the country we see bright spots.  The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center is creating a model to protect and care for LGBT youth in the foster care system.  Their hope is that the model could be spread nationally.  GLSEN shows us a model for Gay, Lesbian and Straight collaboration to make schools a better place for all students, gay and straight.

These successes show us that there is a lot more we can do.

I want to close by talking directly to the students and young adults here today.  First, I want to thank you for making the extraordinary choice to become advocates and leaders at such a young age. I sincerely hope you continue on this path. A path that may take some of you back here to Washington. Every day that I go to work, I benefit from the talents of a remarkable group of leaders who are gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender.  I see the next crop of those leaders with us today.

I know that by working together we can create a safe and nurturing environment for LGBT youth.  And we can build communities where every child – gay, lesbian bisexual, transgendered or straight, has the opportunity to succeed in any way they can imagine.  That way, it truly can get better.
Thank you for letting me join you today.