I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1681 
To prohibit discrimination in adoption or foster care placements based on 
the sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status of any prospec-
tive adoptive or foster parent, or the sexual orientation or gender identity 
of the child involved. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 3, 2011 
Mr. STARK (for himself, Mr. FILNER, Ms. MOORE, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, 
Ms. CHU, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. TSONGAS, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. 
SERRANO, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. ELLISON, Mrs. 
DAVIS of California, Mr. OLVER, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. WU, Mr. 
POLIS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. 
GUTIERREZ, Mr. ROTHMAN of New Jersey, Ms. RICHARDSON, Ms. NOR-
TON, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. MORAN, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. NADLER, 
Ms. DELAURO, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. PINGREE of 
Maine, and Mr. WEINER) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To prohibit discrimination in adoption or foster care place-
ments based on the sexual orientation, gender identity, 
or marital status of any prospective adoptive or foster 
parent, or the sexual orientation or gender identity of 
the child involved. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Every Child Deserves 
a Family Act’’. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) There is a shortage of qualified individuals 
willing to adopt or foster a child in the child welfare 
system. As a result, thousands of foster children 
lack a permanent and safe home. 
(2) In order to open more homes to foster chil-
dren, child welfare agencies should work to eliminate 
sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital sta-
tus discrimination and bias in adoption and foster 
care recruitment, selection, and placement proce-
dures. 
(3) Of the estimated 500,000 children in the 
United States foster care system, over 129,000 can-
not return to their original families and are legally 
free for adoption. 
(A) Fifty-one thousand children were 
adopted in 2007, while 25,000 youth ‘‘aged 
out’’ of the foster care system. 
(B) Research shows that youth who ‘‘age 
out’’ of the foster care system are at a high risk 
for poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and 
early parenthood. 
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(C) Increasing adoption rates, in addition 
to establishing permanency and decreasing risk 
factors for foster youth, can yield annual na-
tional cost savings between $3,300,000,000 and 
$6,300,000,000. 
(4) Experts agree that in many States, lesbian, 
gay, bisexual and transgender youth experience dis-
crimination, harassment, and violence in the foster 
care system because of their sexual orientation or 
gender identity. 
(5) Approximately 60 percent of homeless les-
bian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth were pre-
viously in foster care. According to the Urban Jus-
tice Center, many of these young people reported 
that living on the streets felt ‘‘safer’’ than living in 
their group or foster home. 
(6) According to data taken from the 2000 
Census, an estimated 27 percent of same-sex couples 
have at least 1 child under 18 years of age living in 
the home. 
(7) According to research by Gary Gates of the 
Williams 
Institute, 
there 
are 
approximately 
1,000,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender 
couples throughout the United States who are rais-
ing approximately 2,000,000 children. 
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(8) As of 2007, gay, lesbian, and bisexual par-
ents were raising 4 percent of all adopted children 
and fostering for 3 percent of all foster children. A 
report from the Williams Institute found that an ad-
ditional 2,000,000 gay, lesbian, and bisexual individ-
uals are interested in adoption. 
(9) According to the Urban Institute and the 
Williams Institute, same-sex couples raising adopted 
children tend to be older than, just as educated as, 
and have access to the same economic resources as 
other adoptive parents. Studies confirm that children 
with same-sex parents have the same advantages 
and same expectations for health, social and psycho-
logical adjustment, and development as children 
whose parents are heterosexual. 
(10) An Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute 
study found that one-third of child welfare agencies 
in the United States currently reject gay, lesbian, 
and bisexual applicants. 
(A) The practice of prohibiting applicants 
from becoming foster parents or adopting chil-
dren solely on the basis of sexual orientation or 
marital status has resulted in reducing the 
number of qualified adoptive and foster parents 
overall and denying gay, lesbian, bisexual, and 
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unmarried relatives the opportunity to become 
foster parents for their own kin, including 
grandchildren, or to adopt their own kin, in-
cluding grandchildren, from foster care. 
(B) According to the Williams Institute, 
over 14,000 children are currently in foster 
placements with gay, lesbian, and bisexual 
adoptive and foster parents. Another 65,000 
children are being raised by their adoptive par-
ents. If other States followed the minority of 
States and discriminated against qualified indi-
viduals because of their sexual orientation or 
marital status, foster care expenditures would 
increase 
between 
$87,000,000 
and 
$130,000,000 per year in order to pay for addi-
tional institutional and group care, as well as to 
recruit and train new foster and adoptive par-
ents. 
(11) Some States allow 1 member of a same- 
sex couple to adopt, but do not recognize both mem-
bers of the couple as the child’s legal parents. Rec-
ognition of joint adoption provides children with the 
same rights and security that children of hetero-
sexual parents enjoy. These protections include ac-
cess to both parents’ health benefits; survivor’s, So-
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