A new Care2 petition started by two Maryland-based adoptive dads, Jamie McGonnigal and Sean Carlson, is calling on U.S. Representative Robert Aderholt ( R-AL ) and Congress to pull an amendment that punishes states refusing to give funding to religious adoption agencies that won't place children to LGBTQ parents. Since launching, the Care2 petition has gathered over 23,000 signatures since launching.
View the Care2 petition here www.care2.com/go/z/Adoption .
McGonnigal and Carlson, who are in the process of adopting their first baby, started the Care2 petition after Rep. Aderholt added it as an amendment to a funding bill for the Departments of Health, Labor and Education.
"I challenge Rep. Aderholt to come to sit across from us at our dinner table and tell us that we aren't qualified to be parents," said Carlson. "As prospective parents, every aspect of our lives and qualifications were evaluated before taking on this enormous responsibility. If this bill comes to pass, we could be eliminated before ever being considered, just because of who we are and who we love."
"The only thing that matters is the best interests of children and this bill does nothing to advance that," added Carlson. "I dare you to look a child in the face who is seeking a forever home and tell them that they ruled out a prospective family because they are gay. It's monstrous."
"With children waiting an average of two years to be placed in a home, we need more parental candidates, not fewer," McGonnigal and Carlson write on their Care2 petition. "There's no rational reason for this rule, and Rep. Aderholt needs to pull his amendment."
According to research more than 16,000 same-sex couples are raising an estimated 22,000 adopted children in the United States. There are over 428,000 children in foster care in the United States of those 107,000 children are eligible and available for adoption. More than 2 million LGBTQ people are interested in adopting.
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