NASHVILLE, TN — According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization,  the Tennessee Senate passed the Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Parent Protection Act today. The group says the bill would prohibit the Department of Children’s Services from excluding parents who want to foster or adopt a child but not affirm or accept the child’s sexual orientation or gender identity based on the parents’ moral or religious objections to LGBTQ+ identity. The bill is set to be heard in the House on April 1st.  

Human Rights Campaign Senior Director of Legal Policy Cathryn Oakley released the following statement on SB1738: The best interest of the child is supposed to be the central organizing principle of all decisions made in the child welfare system. SB1738 upends this, instead centering the interests of potential foster and adoptive parents, including those who attest they would subject a child in their care to the abusive and discredited practice of conversion therapy.  LGBTQ+ youth, who are overrepresented in the child welfare system and amongst homeless teens largely because of family rejection, deserve to be placed in homes that respect their identity and support them in their personal growth. Youth in the child welfare system are the responsibility of the state of Tennessee, and placing them in homes where they are not respected and safe as they are is both wrong and a violation of federal law. We call on Tennessee legislators to vote against SB 1738 and stand with the most vulnerable among us.