What is National Adoption Awareness Month without a Presidential Proclamation? This year’s proclamation, issued on October 31, is here.
Of course, Trump didn’t actually write the proclamation himself. Some low-level staffer–perhaps an intern–is tasked with the job. We doubt if Trump has thought much about adoption anyway, except how to make money out of it.
The proclamation commences with sweet praise for “adoptive parents who provide homes — and the invaluable gifts of hope, love, and stability — to thousands of infants, children, and youth.” The Adopted and Foster Classes then go dark except to be trotted out a couple of paragraphs down, as something to be saved.
Here is the core of the message at length:
While there were more than 63,000 adoptions from the foster care system in FY 2018, thousands of children and youth are still waiting to find permanent, loving families. The need is urgent. We must improve efforts to recruit new adoptive families while faithfully supporting, equipping, and encouraging those families who have already taken one of our Nation’s young people into their home to love and care for.
Additionally, children with disabilities and those with siblings typically wait longer for permanent placement in a home.This month, we also reaffirm our commitment to our Nation’s most vulnerable and valuable resource — our children, especially those at greatest risk of neglect. Thousands of older youth in the foster care system desperately need the ongoing guidance and support of a nurturing family. Too many of our youth transition to the next stage of their lives without stable family connections or positive role models to help them navigate the challenges of adulthood. These children need a family who will provide a foundation of acceptance, mentorship, and unconditional love that will motivate and help them to reach their full potential in life.
Of course, as with everything Trumpian, the murky mirror shortly appears.
Despite Trump’s unicorn ride, the following day, November 1, just in time to kick off NAAM2019 , the Trump Department of Health and Human Services announced its intention to implement a new rule that would strip Obama-era protections for LBGTQ individuals. and couples regarding access to social services. The new rule would allow recipients of HHS grants, including faith-based adoption agencies and foster care providers, to reject same-sex couples.
This is nothing new. Since the Obama Rule went into effect, evangelical groups have sought to kill it, asserting that “faith-based” groups have a special right to taxpayer money. They argue that mandating “faith-based” groups and agencies adhere to the same federal anti-discrimination laws that secular private and public agencies are required to follow is a violation of religious freedom and discriminates against “needy children.” and their agents. In other words, as Christian evangelical do-gooders, they are above the law.
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ony Perkins, small government huckster, and director of the rightwing Family Research Council (opposed records access in Doe v Sunquist) momentarily dropped his asmall-government spiel when he heard the news, and implied that the feds have a duty to fund religious agencies lest they (and children) die. It must be noted that Perkins has absolutely no problem with brown children in cages at the border.
Under the proposed HHS rule, faith-based adoption providers will no longer have to choose between abandoning their faith or abandoning homeless children because the government disapproves of their views on marriage.
Funny that none of these faith-basers advocate the establishment of their own free-standing , self-supporting agencies, free of federal and state funding. Let the market dictate their success. Of course, if this were just about adoption they would. But the real motive is grubbing tax-payer money to pimp their conversional theocratic social agenda.
If I remember correctly, shortly after the Obama Rule went in to effect Catholic Charities shut down its adoption placement services (kept home studies, search services) rather than deal with LBGTQ folks. Certain types of adoption aficionados went berzerk screaming that the CC pull-out would spike abortions or (horrors!) force women to keep their babies. As if dozens of professional non-religious baby grabbers weren’t reaching their fingers into the market. But moral panic is a sign of our current state of culture.
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Look again at the NAAM2019 proclamation. Oh, the hypocrisy!
We are begging people to pick up the load, that our lousy, grubby child welfare system has created, but no queers, who have a long and succssful record in adoption and foster,ng need apply. We only want our kind. Mark my words. This is only the beginning, The goal is to Christianize and privatize all adoption. Imagine AdoptionLand run by Bethany.
That the Trump administration dropped this turd on the first day of NAM2019 is a stunning example of Trumpian fuck you cognitive dissonance.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown tweeted:
Sherrod Brown@SenSherrodBrown