When Lakeview couple Matt Nalett and Fred Steinhauer began the process to adopt a 15-year-old boy earlier this year, they gained excitement with each step along the way, passing background checks, a home inspection and meeting with the boy's therapist, case worker and a welfare agent as part of the rigorous process all potential foster parents undergo.
But the process was halted Sept. 15 when Nalett and Steinhauer were told the faith-based agency overseeing the care of the 15-year-old"Kenny"did not license adoptive or foster care families who identify as LGBT. The couple was turned away while Kenny, a ward of the state for the last seven years, would remain under care of the agencythe River Forest-based Lutheran Child and Family Services ( LCFS ) of Illinois.
Nalett and Steinhauer, who have lived together for seven years and were legally married in Canada, said they feel they were "led on" by LCFS. Steinhauer told Windy City Times they "made it very clear" to the agency that they were a gay couple from the start of their process. They had been regularly meeting with Kenny for "a number of months" before they were first told their sexual orientation violated the agency's policy.
"They knew very clearly that we were a same-sex couple. They knew for months before then and it was no secret," Steinhauer said. "We were never made aware of their policy."
Nalett originally met Kenny this year, while volunteering with a Lakeview area group for teenage runaways. Kenny came to the group after a long history of unstable housing. At one point, Kennywho is also gayhad run away from a group home where he had encountered bullying.
According to Kendall Marlowe, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ( DCFS ) , three faith-based agencies in the stateLCFS, Catholic Charities and the Wheaton-based Evangelical Child and Family Agencydo not license same-sex foster or adoptive parents.
While the agencies have done so under a specific exemption to the Illinois Human Rights Act for faith-based adoption agencies, Lambda Legal staff attorney Christopher Clark argued the agencies' receipt of state fundinga cumulative total of over $40 million in fiscal year 2010renders their exclusion of same-sex prospective parents discriminatory and illegal under state, county, city and potentially federal law.
"The law prohibits the government from discriminating against LGBT families when providing social services and government-funded social service organizations have to comply with the law," Clark said. "There is a fundamental difference between a private adoption agency and an organization involved in placing children in foster homes, which is a state responsibility."
Lambda Legal met with DCFS and staff from the state attorney general and governor's offices in early November to "begin to resolve the legal issues" surrounding the controversy, Marlowe said. If the parties involved choose to change their legal interpretation of the aforementioned agencies' policies on same-sex adoption, those agencies would "have to grapple with that," he added.
Marlowe declined to discuss details of any specific actions that may be taken, but wanted to make it clear that LGBT families considering becoming foster or adoptive parents remain welcomed by DCFS. Most Illinois adoption agencies are inclusive of same-sex couples.
"We still want gay men and lesbians coming to us to parent. We know from experience and research that sexual orientation has no bearing whatsover on the ability of a parent to provide a safe, loving permanent home to a child," he said.
"DCFS is happy to see further movement in Illinois toward tolerance and inclusion and we will continue to collaborate and work toward that goal," Marlowe added.
Since Nalett and Steinhauer's story was first reported on WFLD Fox 32 on Nov. 8, Kenny was transferred from the care of LCFS to DCFS and will be assigned a new case worker, though he is still living in the same group home. Meanwhile, Nalett and Steinhauer have begun their process to become foster parents anewa process they expect may take up to six months.
"The person who suffers most is not us, it's really Kenny," Steinhauer said, when asked if he felt frustrated at restarting the process again. "He still remains in the foster care system, being bounced from one agency to DCFS and that doesn't really do anyone any good."
Steinhauer hoped, in addition to he and Nalett being licensed as Kenny's foster parents, their story would help other prospective foster and adoptive parents, opening up "a whole new avenue of resources for children who desperately need loving homes" and raising awareness of the continued discrimination queer families face in the state.
LCFS did not return Windy City Times' request for comment for this story as of press deadline; moreover, the agency's policy on same-sex adoptive and foster parents is no longer visible on its website.