Adoption and Foster Care Discrimination

Historically, formal adoption and foster care were restricted to heterosexual married couples. Over the past two decades such restrictions have been lifted in many countries to allow single people and/or people who do not identify as heterosexual and cisgender (i.e., people whose gender identity normatively accords with that expected of their assigned sex) to become adoptive or foster parents. In some countries, however, restrictions upon who is eligible to adopt or foster remain, and indeed this is differentiated within countries by state or province. Yet despite the gradual lifting of restrictions, and as is the case with many such legislative and policy changes, practices within adoption and foster care agencies often lag behind the laws and policies that guide them. As such, some lesbians, gay ...