I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2640 
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 24, 2017 
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia (for himself and Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN) introduced the 
following 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’’. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
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(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 427,910 children in the 
United States foster care system, more than 
111,820 cannot return to their original families and 
are legally free for adoption. 
(A) 53,549 children were adopted in 2015, 
while 20,789 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 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 
people have had a child and as many as 6,000,000 
American adults and children have a lesbian, gay, 
bisexual, or transgender parent. Among adults under 
50 years of age living alone or with a spouse or 
partner, 
percent 
of 
lesbian, 
bisexual, 
or 
transgender women are raising a child under 18 
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years of age, and 20 percent of gay, bisexual, or 
transgender men are doing so. 
(8) As of 2013, same-sex couples are raising 
1.4 percent of adopted children with 2 parents and 
are fostering 1.7 percent of foster children living 
with 2 parents. A 2007 report from the Williams In-
stitute found that an additional 2,000,000 gay, les-
bian, and bisexual individuals are interested in adop-
tion. 
(9) According to the Williams Institute/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 psycho-
logical adjustment, and development as children 
whose parents are heterosexual. 
(10) The practice of prohibiting applicants from 
becoming foster parents or adopting children solely 
on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or 
marital status has resulted in reducing the number 
of qualified adoptive and foster parents overall and 
denying gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unmarried rel-
atives the opportunity to become foster parents for 
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their own kin, including grandchildren, or to adopt 
their own kin, including grandchildren, from foster 
care. 
(11) According to the Williams Institute, as of 
2013, more than 3,400 children are currently in fos-
ter placements with same-sex couples. Another 
22,000 children are being raised by same-sex adop-
tive couples. If other States followed the minority of 
States and discriminated against qualified individ-
uals because of their sexual orientation, gender iden-
tity, or marital status, foster care expenditures 
would 
increase 
between 
$87,000,000 
and 
$130,000,000 per year in order to pay for additional 
institutional and group care, as well as to recruit 
and train new foster and adoptive parents. 
(12) Some States allow 1 member of an unmar-
ried couple to adopt, but do not recognize both mem-
bers of the unmarried couple as the child’s legal par-
ents. Recognition of joint adoption by unmarried 
couples provides children with the same rights and 
security that children of married parents enjoy. 
These protections include access to both parents’ 
health benefits, survivor’s, Social Security, and child 
support entitlements, legal grounds for either parent 
to provide consent for medical care, education, and 
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other important decisions, as well as the establish-
ment of permanency for parents and child. 
(13) Professional organizations in the fields of 
medicine, psychology, law, and child welfare have 
taken official positions in support of the ability of 
qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unmarried cou-
ples to foster and adopt a child, as supported by sci-
entific research showing sexual orientation as a non-
determinative factor in parental success. 
(14) Discrimination against potential foster or 
adoptive parents based on sexual orientation, gender 
identity, or marital status is not in the best interests 
of children in the foster care system. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to de-
crease the length of time that children wait for perma-
nency with a loving family and to promote the best inter-
ests of children in the child welfare system by preventing 
discrimination in adoption and foster care placements 
based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital 
status. 
SEC. 3. EVERY CHILD DESERVES A FAMILY. 
(a) ACTIVITIES.— 
(1) PROHIBITION.—An entity that receives Fed-
eral assistance or contracts with an entity that re-
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ceives Federal assistance, and is involved in adoption 
or foster care placements may not— 
(A) deny to any person the opportunity to 
become an adoptive or a foster parent on the 
basis of the sexual orientation, gender identity, 
or marital status of the person, or the sexual 
orientation or gender identity of the child in-
volved; 
(B) delay or deny the placement of a child 
for adoption or into foster care on the basis of 
the sexual orientation, gender identity, or mar-
ital status of any prospective adoptive or foster 
parent, or the sexual orientation or gender iden-
tity of the child; or 
(C) 
require 
different 
or 
additional 
screenings, processes, or procedures for adop-
tive or foster placement decisions on the basis 
of the sexual orientation, gender identity, or 
marital status of the prospective adoptive or 
foster parent, or the sexual orientation or gen-
der identity of the child involved. 
(2) DEFINITION OF PLACEMENT DECISION.—In 
this section, the term ‘‘placement decision’’ means 
the decision to place, or to delay or deny the place-
ment of, a child in a foster care or an adoptive 
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