USA cancels requirement to place children only in LGBT-friendly families

A stroller with an LGBT rainbow flag. Photo: Guillaume Paumier, wikimedia

The administration of US President Donald Trump has revoked a Biden-era rule requiring children struggling with gender issues to be placed with pro-LGBT+ families, reports The Daily Wire.

The rule in question was approved in April 2024 by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Under this rule, organizations working with foster children were required to ensure that minors who identified a sexual orientation or gender identity were placed in families willing to support such self-identification.

Following the revocation of the rule, representatives of the Trump administration stated that the previous requirements created additional obstacles to recruiting new foster parents.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Alex Adams noted that the move builds on first lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative and related executive order charting a “whole-of-government approach to improving child welfare and foster care.” Part of this is Adams’s “Home for Every Child” campaign, which focuses on increasing the ratio of foster homes to foster kids.

According to Adams, the families most inclined to offer adoption are those with sincere religious convictions and moral principles. He emphasized that the message the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sends to families of believers is critically important since it will “either make or break your recruitment and your retention of existing foster homes.”

“The 2024 designated placement rule was one of those things that we think sent the wrong message,” Adams explained. “It would have segmented families into those that are ‘LGBTQ-friendly’ and those that are not.”. He noted that the United States is currently facing a shortage of foster families: "Right now we only have 57 foster families for every 100 children entering the system." 

As the UOJ reported, the US Supreme Court upheld the ban on transgender athletes in women's sports.

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