I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2028 
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 16, 2013 
Mr. LEWIS (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. RANGEL, 
Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. BASS, Mrs. 
CAPPS, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. 
CICILLINE, Ms. CLARKE, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. CONYERS, Mrs. DAVIS of 
California, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. DEUTCH, Ms. EDWARDS, Mr. ELLISON, 
Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. HONDA, Ms. EDDIE BER-
NICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. KUSTER, Mr. LANGEVIN, 
Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. SEAN 
PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, 
Ms. MOORE, Mr. NADLER, Ms. NORTON, Mr. O’ROURKE, Ms. PELOSI, 
Ms. PINGREE of Maine, Mr. POCAN, Mr. POLIS, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. ROY-
BAL-ALLARD, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. SCHWARTZ, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. SWALWELL 
of California, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. TSONGAS, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, 
and Ms. WILSON of Florida) 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. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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.—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 400,000 children in the 
United States foster care system, more than 
104,000 cannot return to their original families and 
are legally free for adoption. 
(A) 50,516 children were adopted in 2011, 
while 26,286 youth ‘‘aged out’’ of the foster 
care system. 
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(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. 
(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 the Williams Institute, an esti-
mated 19 percent of same-sex couple households in-
clude children under 18 years of age. 
(7) The Williams Institute estimates that 
3,000,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender 
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