I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4806 
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 
MARCH 10, 2010 
Mr. STARK (for himself, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California, 
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. ROTHMAN of New Jersey, Ms. 
BALDWIN, Ms. CHU, and Mr. HASTINGS of Florida) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred 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, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Every Child Deserves 
a Family Act’’. 
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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) 51,000 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. 
(C) Increasing adoption rates, in addition 
to establishing permanency and decreasing risk 
factors for foster youth, can yield annual na-
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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) There are approximately 1,000,000 lesbian, 
gay, bisexual, and transgender couples throughout 
the United States who are raising approximately 
2,000,000 children. 
(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 Evan B. Donaldson Institute found 
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that an additional 2,000,000 gay, lesbian, and bisex-
ual individuals are interested in adoption. 
(9) According to the Urban 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 psychological adjustment, and de-
velopment as children whose parents are hetero-
sexual. 
(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 
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. 
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