Reasonably Logical

Thought I might as well post this here. This is the write up for a workshop I will hopefully be presenting at Creating Change in Feb. 08. I just got this submitted today.

Title: Out (or Not) In the Child Welfare System: Foster Care, Adoptions, & Orphanages
Level: all levels
Format: 90-minute workshop (basic info followed by discussion)
Facilitators: Mandy Carter, Philip Reames

Blurb:
LGBTQ individuals have multiple positions within the child welfare system, each with its own set of challenges. This workshop is intended to illuminate the child welfare system as it currently exists (for professionals and new comers alike) and start a discussion on changing it for the better. Come and join us for a discussion of the ways the child welfare system effects us, and the ways we can effect it.

Full Description:
LGBTQ individuals have multiple positions within the child welfare system. Many are youth, going through the system without a place to turn or a safe adult to talk to. Others are prospective foster and adoptive parents, sometimes desperately fighting for themselves and their prospective children. And let us not forget the very social workers and staffers who run the system, many of whom are also LGBTQ.

Each group faces its own set of challenges, some similar, some very different. This workshop is intended to illuminate the child welfare system as it currently exists (for professionals and new comers alike) and start a discussion on changing it for the better.

The facilitators will open the discussion by sharing basic facts & figures such as percentages and numbers of LGBTQ youth in the child welfare system, and then presenting personal stories collected from members of all three groups. Following this introduction, the audience will be invited to share their own perspectives and experiences for the benefit of the group as a whole. Issues up for discussion will include:
- Existing organizations which explicitly serve LGBTQ individuals
- Tips and tactics for surviving as a LGBTQ youth within the system
- The relationship between homelessness and foster care for LGBTQ youth
- Providing services to LGBT youth in non-affirming localities
- Where to get information and assistance as a LGBT foster or adoptive parent
- Working inside the system as an activist (out or not)

Note: This workshop is a companion to the one presented by Pauline Park on inter-country adoption. The two are intended to be presented together, but can be presented separately if need be.

Read through the article below. I image you’ll be as pissed as I was. This seems like a pretty clear case of a judge going way beyond the law to enforce his own morals. I surprised they haven’t sued him directly yet. The part that really got me was that he banned her from using the same lawyer. What legal power does he have to do that? (I would think, none.)

Georgia judge halts lesbian adoption
Court cites constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage
By RYAN LEE | Apr 11, 4:58 PM
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=12349

Received this via email. If anyone has a link to the actual study, I’d like to have it.

WILLIAMS INSTITUTE, URBAN INSTITUTE RELEASE MAJOR STUDY ON ADOPTION &
FOSTER CARE BY LESBIANS & GAY MEN

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, the Williams Institute and the Urban Institute
released a major study on adoption and foster care by lesbian and gay
parents. The study uses census data and other government surveys to
estimate for the first time the number of adopted and fostered children
living with lesbian and gay parents in the United States and to provide a
demographic portrait of these families. The research team also estimates
the economic and social costs of banning such adoptions and foster care, a
prospect under debate in legislatures and courts in several states.

Findings from the study include:

• More than 1 in 3 lesbians have given birth and 1 in 6 gay men have
fathered or adopted a child.

• More than 50% of gay men and 41% of lesbians want to have a child.

• An estimated 2 million GLB people are interested in adopting.

• An estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay
parent.

• Gay and lesbian parents are raising 4% of all adopted children in the
United States.

• An estimated 14,100 foster children are living with lesbian or gay
parents.

• Gay and lesbian parents are raising 3% of foster children in the United
States.

• A national ban on GLB foster care could cost from $87 to $130 million.

• Costs to individual states could range from $100,000 to $27 million
“Our study documents that a significant number of GLB individuals and
couples are raising adopted and fostered children and two million GLB
people would consider adopting a child,” said Gary J. Gates, Senior
Research Fellow at the Williams Institute, “GLB people appear to be an
under-utilized resource for child welfare agencies desperately in need of
families willing to foster and perhaps adopt children who have had a rough
start in life,” Gates continued.

“Research documents that children raised by lesbian and gay parents do just
fine,” said Gates. “Our study documents that lesbian and gay couples who
adopt are older, more educated, and have greater economic resources to
support their children than do other adoptive families.”

Currently, several states are considering laws and policies that would
prevent GLB people from adopting and fostering. According to the study,
such policy changes could bring additional and significant instability in
the lives of youth in the foster care system. An estimated 9,300 to 14,000
children currently placed with existing GLB foster parents could be removed
from those families. As a result, children in the foster care system who
are available for adoption may remain there longer or might never be
adopted at all. In particular, GLB youth are likely to lose out since GLB
people might be more willing to provide placements for GLB youth.

“Instability is not good for children,” said Jennifer Macomber. “Studies
show that the number of moves between placements is associated with
multiple harmful outcomes for children, including academic, mental health,
and behavioral problems. Children with fewer placements show better school
achievement, less criminal activity, more social support, increased life
satisfaction, greater housing stability, better self-support, and better
caring for their own children.”

Additionally, the economic cost of banning GLB people from adopting and
fostering could be significant. “Our research indicates that a national
ban on GLB foster case could cost from $87 to $130 million,” said M.V. Lee
Badgett, Research Director at the Williams Institute. “States would spend
more on foster care as children who are removed from family settings would
be placed in group or institutional care, at greater cost. States will
also have to spend more money to recruit and train new foster parents.”