Restore Protections for LGBTQ youth and families in WV Foster Care
During their December interim meeting, the WV legislature’s Joint Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee voted 7 to 5 to strip protections for LGBTQ foster children and families from state law. This change would remove a provision of state law that requires LGBTQ children in protective care to have equal access to foster and adoptive families and would also allow agencies that place foster children to reject prospective foster parents based on the parents' sexual orientation.
West Virginia has the highest per capita rate of children in state custody in the country, and LGBTQ youth are already at higher risk of being placed in state custody and less likely to find stable homes after they enter the child welfare system.
It is unthinkably cruel to remove protections from children who are doubly vulnerable as LGBTQ youth in foster care.
It is unthinkably foolish and cruel to allow discrimination against LGBTQ families from becoming foster parents when we have a desperate need for more foster families, especially for difficult to place children including LGBTQ youth who may be subjected to rejection or discrimination in the foster system.
This regressive rule change will only make our foster care crisis worse, and it will send a horrible message to the rest of the country that we value homophobia more than providing safe homes for foster children.
These seven voted to end LGBTQ protections: Delegate Geoff Foster (R-Putnam), Delegate Brandon Steele (R-Raleigh), Senator Mark Maynard (R- Wayne), Senator Patricia Rucker (R- Jefferson), Senator Dave Sypolt (R- Preston), Delegate Jim Butler (R- Mason), Delegate Patrick Martin (R- Lewis.)
These five voted to keep the protections in place: Senator Ryan Weld (R- Brooke), Barbara Fleischauer (D-Monongalia), Senator Stephen Baldwin (D-Greenbrier), Delegate Larry Rowe (D- Kanawha), Senator Glenn Jeffries (D- Putnam.)
The entire legislature will have to vote to confirm, reject or modify this rule change during the upcoming winter, 2020 session. The WV legislature can reverse this horrifying action, if we convince our legislators how important this is to us.
Please sign letters to your WV legislators to urge them to reverse this rule change and restore protections for LGBTQ children and families in our foster care system.
