New Biden rule for foster parents forces them to affirm LGBTQI+ identities — or be charged with child abuse

49
2018

The Biden Administration has set a deadline of Monday, Nov. 27, for public comment on a significant proposed regulation regarding foster care.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families quietly introduced the rule, “Safe and Appropriate Foster Care Placement Requirements for Titles IV–E and IV–B,” on Sept. 28.

The proposal is part of the Biden Administration’s continued interest in pushing children into alternate sexual identities and lifestyles, specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex identities.

Key aspects of the proposed rule include:

  1. Mandatory affirmation of gender expression: Foster parents will be required to affirm the gender expression of LGBTQI+ children. Non-compliance with this rule could be considered child abuse.
  2. Specific requirements for agencies: Agencies must implement processes to ensure safe and appropriate placements for LGBTQI+ children and provide necessary support services.
  3. Addressing risks and adverse outcomes: The rule aims to mitigate the risks LGBTQI+ children face in foster care, such as mistreatment, stigma, and discrimination.
  4. Prohibitions on conversion therapy: The rule explicitly bans all practices aimed at changing a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Foster parents can only affirm identity, and cannot question or provide an alternative view of a child’s stated identity. Conversations that a foster parent has with a LGBTQI+ child may be subject to litigation, if the child reports it to authorities as unsupportive.

The ACF rule will force foster parents to use the name the child prefers, and the pronouns the child insists on as part of creating a “safe home environment.” If the foster parent refuses, he or she may be charged with child abuse.

While the Biden Administration aims to protect and support LGBTQI+ children in foster care, it has raised several questions and concerns:

  • Definition of key terms: Terms like “hostility,” “mistreatment,” or “abuse” are not explicitly defined, leading to potential ambiguity in enforcement.
  • First Amendment concerns: The inclusion of talk therapy in the definition of ‘conversion therapy’ and its legal implications under the First Amendment are unclear. In Anchorage, a similar ordinance prohibiting “conversion therapy” has the same First Amendment violations already in local law.
  • Lack of specific training curriculum: While training for providers is mentioned, no specific curriculum is proposed.
  • Role of biological parents: The proposal does not address the involvement of biological parents in decisions regarding the services and activities provided to their children, while the children are being fostered. Not all children enter foster care because of misdeeds of their parents, although the vast majority of foster children have suffered physical abuse, psychological abuse, or sexual abuse.
  • Medical interventions: The rule is ambiguous when it comes to medical interventions like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries.

Critics of the new rule say that, rather than prevent homelessness and institutionalization for LGBTQI+ youth, this new rule will cause foster families to not accept these children, because of the risk of being accused of the crime of child abuse if they inadvertently cross some undefined line set forth by the federal government.

Read the entire proposed rule at the ACF link.

49 COMMENTS

  1. Oh the irony…Way to destroy the foster program already suffering from lack of good qualified foster homes, you doddering old fool..🤦‍♂️

    • They don’t care. All that they care about is their progressive agenda. If they could, they would require post birth abortions to solve the problem of the ‘undesirables’. Remember, this is the party of slavery, descendants of those who tried to cover up Holodomor and the Holocaust. They don’t care about the well being of kids. All they care about is themselves and their elite cohorts.

  2. Biden is definitely reaching far and wide! He’s checking off the bullet points, desperately trying to bring his polling numbers up and is more than willing to sacrifice your children to do it!
    🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸

  3. If a child is born addicted to drugs that child should be supplied with drugs until they decide that they want to quit. Children born to thieves should be allowed to thieve unit they decide to stop.

    • That is not what happens, Akwhitty. A newborn dependent on opiates or other drugs has life-threatening issues which are handled by the medical staff, and the baby is removed from the parent. It’s in the interest of the child to not be chemically dependent as it emerges into this world.

  4. What a f in idiot.
    There will be LESS support for gay kids w/this red tape, that threatens the (all ready not enough) foster parent system.
    Do leftists know you have to open a door before you walk through it, or do they just walk into the door?
    After all not everyone can open a door, so it wouldn’t be equitable for us to open doors before use them, it just wouldn’t be fair.

  5. “LGBTQ youth who had been in foster care had three times greater odds of reporting a past-year suicide attempt.” This is a statement from The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to transforming health care through evidence and collaboration which has been around for thirty years. The bottom line is reducing suicide among young people. The average age of a youngster in foster care is 8 years of age.

    As for bringing up this as part of the agenda of President Biden, the next election presidential is a vote for the future of democracy if the trumph is on the ballot; whether folks are going to vote for a cult leader or vote for allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America. Without faith in the American universal guidance provided by this document for our democratic republic, we’re rudderless.

    • The same Biden who has perverted the justice, homeland, military? Who routinely violates the laws and customs of America? That cult leader?

      You are nowhere near as clever as you think yourself. Not by half.

      • MA, it seems as though your comment was directed toward me. I don’t go around pretending to be clever. I’m just who I am. Whether or not you think I’m clever is rather immaterial to the matter at hand. And, I do have several years experience working with young adults in behavioral health, for whatever that is worth, to anyone questioning why I can challenge your misconceptions, both basic and foundational knowledge.

        As for the grief about trumph. Goodness, me. Don’t you see the difference between republicanism and cult following? One is trumph and one is your republican party membership in this free society under the US Constitution. Seems to me, you and I are about the same age. Maybe you’re younger. I was born in the Territory, if that’s any indication. I remember high school civics class and memorizing the Preamble, and then going over the rest of it with a fine-tooth comb. Maybe they didn’t cover that in your high school. Chugiak is still one of the best in the Anchorage School District.

    • Where in the constitution does it permit the DOJ to investigate parents who speak out against the indoctrination of children in the public education system?

      • There is a legal difference between adoption and fostering, and responsibilities from/to/for a child from government entities. I’m pretty sure the US Constitution doesn’t address the specific issue you’re asking about, and one would daresay it is neither here nor there. You and I know that a person is affected by adverse experiences imprinted in childhood forever, which ultimately affects their liberty, lives, and pursuit of happiness.

    • Mrs. N–thank you for sharing an excerpt from a research study on the well-being and mental health of LGBTQI+ youth who had experienced foster care. I looked up the study, and was quite interested to read that affirmative foster care and schools dramatically lowered the risks of suicide for LGBTQI+ youth. Additionally, LGBTQI+ youth who had been placed in non-affirmative foster care had a much higher risk of becoming homeless due to being kicked out of the foster home, abandoned by the foster caregivers, or running away due to the maltreatment in foster care. Thanks again for posting the intriguing statement that led me to find the study here: ‘https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/LGBTQ-Youth-with-a-History-of-Foster-Care_-May-2021.pdf

      • TheTrevorProject??? The one that the cross dresser Sam Brinton sold to Chris Constant with the Anchorage taxpayers dollars?
        How much did Chris pay you to cheerlead for his stupidity?
        Or are you an ASSembly member in your other life?

        • C’mon, now. The issue is not the Trevor project. The issue is facts– about foster children, abused children being fostered, and children removed from situations for their own safety fostered through the Department of Social Services, which is publicly funded, and therefore answers to certain standards of care, such as the ‘foster parents’ not out-and-out rejecting children whatever their sexual orientation. Fostering adults do have an option not to participate if they cannot abide by rules.

        • Andy, I am with you, quoting the Trevor Project as a reliable source is ridiculous. This particular group is known to manipulate numbers and cherry-pick data to fit their narrative, instead of dealing with actual facts.
          I have a fundamental issue with adults, who lock minor children into a choice and do not allow exploration of their feelings and needs beyond meds and surgeries. These rigid attitudes are changing lives forever, without the opportunity to explore if it is real, a hormonal confusion, mental illness or a fad at school with the need to fit in.

          • On this topic, what I find interesting is that a lot of comments don’t seem able to process the legitimate existence of folks that are not of socially defined genders. I don’t think that is the real issue, however, as there may be reluctance and prejudice based on fear of the unknown. I suspect the real issue is fear of powerlessness. One thing I know is “Knowledge is power” or something like that, and I would suggest that folks read about it if they are not personally involved in the issues surrounding it to be well-informed in what goes on in our world.

            Trevor Project, from what I can find in a quick web search was started in response to bullying of children for their sexual orientation. The legitimacy of their organization founded in 1998 is based on data and research. Their literature may refer to published articles readily accessed on the internet browsers such as PubMed.

            Here are a smattering of articles, which don’t have the word ‘Trevor’ anywhere in their title.

            *Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among LGBTQ youth: Meta-analyses and a systematic review. T Hatchel, JR Polanin, DL Espelage – Archives of suicide research, 2021 – Taylor & Francis. … LGBTQ youth are at a significantly higher risk for suicidal … Suicide is third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds, correlates of STB among LGBTQ youth is one important step … current knowledge on suicide among LGBTQ youth, the present …

            *[PDF] Suicide risk factors among LGBTQ youth. R Aranmolate, DR Bogan, T Hoard… – JSM …, 2017 – academia.edu … Suicidal thoughts and behaviors can lead to suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and death by suicide… risk factors for suicide among LGBTQ youth include: bullying, feelings of …

            *Cumulative minority stress and suicide risk among LGBTQ youth; AE Green, MN Price, SH Dorison – American journal of …, 2022 – Wiley Online Library … LGBTQ youth experience a greater risk for suicide. The current study examines the association of LGBTQ-based cumulative minority stress with suicide … from 39,126 LGBTQ youth ages …

            *Homelessness, mental health and suicidality among LGBTQ youth accessing crisis services. H Rhoades, JA Rusow, D Bond, A Lanteigne… – Child Psychiatry & …, 2018 – Springer, … Utilizing data from LGBTQ youth contacting a suicide crisis services organization, this study examined: (a) rates of homelessness among crisis services users, (b) the relationship …

            *Risk and protective factors to LGBTQ+ youth suicide: A review of the literature. M Gorse – Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 2022 – Springer, … Next, the paper provides a summary of research completed in the field of LGBTQ+ youth suicide since 2010 and then an overview of the relevancy of LGBTQ+ youth suicide to the …

            *Sexual minority stress, mental health symptoms, and suicidality among LGBTQ youth accessing crisis services. A Fulginiti, H Rhoades, MR Mamey, C Klemmer… – Journal of youth and …, 2021 – Springer … aged 12 to 24 (mean age = 17.59; SD = 3.13) recruited from an LGBTQ youth-focused suicide crisis prevention provider. Nearly one-third of the sample (30.2%) identified as transgender…

            *Family, faith, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among LGBTQ youth in Utah. JS McGraw, M Docherty, JR Chinn… – Psychology of sexual …, 2023 – sycnet.apa.org … LGBTQ youth are at higher risk for experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their heterosexual or cisgender peers. Additionally, for LGBTQ youth… suicidal thoughts, and suicide …

          • Mrs. N respectfully I disagree. Most parents wish the best for their child. What they object to is the systematic bombardment of young people with ideas that for the very vast majority of them are NOT organic to each individual. Due to chemical imbalances due to hormonal changes in the teenage years, angst, anxiety and self-doubt are par for the course and can change on almost a daily basis. It is unfair to pressure such individuals in one direction or the other and demand that they undergo surgeries and lifelong medication, BEFORE they are mature and adult enough to understand all the implications and consequences of those choices. The added pressures of believing to be LGBT create added stress simply by that fact. In my opinion it is vital that these children have the opportunity to explore the validity of those feelings under proper mental health care before drastic irrevocable steps are implemented. Simply pretending that their potential mental distress does not exist and support its manifestation without proper diagnosis is in my opinion doing a great disservice to these already vulnerable children.

    • Joe and Dr Jill are experts when it comes to raising children.
      If it wasnt for rehab facilities Hunter would have shot himself with the gun they ditched in the dumpster near the school. He made a statement about being under stress for being pimped out for the family on his laptop.

      Ashley made a statement in her diary which she left behind at her rehab institute that indicated she was having issues with the adult male joining her in the shower at the tender age of 13.

      We have been rudderless since 2008
      Joe;s “Democracy” is nothing more than a socialist dictator. Do AS I Say, Not As I Do)

    • “…the next election presidential is a vote for the future of democracy if the trumph is on the ballot;…”
      The future of democracy?
      Really?
      Tell me, which side of the political aisle is adamant that no investigation into any possibility of election should take place? Which candidate for President in 2020 is fighting tooth and nail against any investigation into the vote?
      If I were to win the Presidency with a record-breaking 81 Million votes, a full seven million more than my opponent, I would fully support a full investigation into any voting/election anomaly.
      Makes me wonder why not? What better way to rub it into the faces of the MAGA folks then auditing the election and proving beyond any shadow of a doubt who really won the election.
      But… the opposite is happening, and you seem to think that is proof that President Trump will destroy democracy?
      Please explain your logic.

      • This commentary started out as clarification about the government role in affirming the rights of children in the foster care system as some sort of complaint about President Biden, related to the fact that trumph would never involve himself in social welfare programs, and my opinion that he is fundamentally anti-democracy. It’s very very difficult after five years of continual hassle for me to see anything that trumph accomplished in his executive position for the good of the country.

        In my opinion, trumph represents self-interested criminal intent, only, and explaining any of the whimsical agenda he seems to be proposing defies logic. Anyone that follows him like a will-o-wisp, is being led by the nose. The claims, pronouncements, promises trumph makes are empty. meaningless words without value or merit based on ‘anti-whatever’, and especially ‘anti-‘ anything of solid benefit to the majority, for the general good.

        How can a decent conservative Republican feel that trumph will represent them? He’s already provided out nation with five years of havoc. He’s says he wants to change the US Constitution. None of the original framers were so reckless as to proclaim the idea of a basic contract with the government was all their own personal invention.
        My folks were Republicans as are most members of my family. They all are trustworthy, honest, hardworking, and well-respected in their communities, and trumph represents absolutely nothing of their decency and those of the other Republican that I admire.

        Still, I’m not sure where the line of questions was leading. There are already basic facts widely published about the election, subsequent audits, investigations, recounts, documented electoral college votes, etc.

    • Well, Mrs N, perhaps you also have information describing WHY these kids want to commit suicide. Generally with kids, it’s self hate. That comes from, perhaps, being deviant? It’s not like homosexual behavior is punished any more. In fact, it’s positively in vogue. Do you suppose the kids know they are twisted and would rather not be? Huh.

      • Thank you for your interest in this issue. My suggestion is that volunteering somewhere where there are children might be helpful to understand some of the social issues in our culture, such as spending a few hours weekly working in a pediatric ward in the hospital, reading for children story hour at the library, or helping children learn to read at a local elementary school. My father, a man with endless patience and knowledge of children as a retired schoolteacher, and parent of eight, in his later life fostered a young man with his wife. It was not easy. Children in foster care, ALREADY, have tremendous strikes against them in their young lives, let alone experience potentially negative personal care-giving. Look at it this way, children in the foster system have higher levels of stress, trauma, abuse, greater chance of having encountered adults with mental conditions, drug dependency, and involvement in the legal system e.g. prison, crime. Children do not need paid care-givers that reject them outright.

      • Exactly.
        Is the rate of suicide higher because society is oppressing them because they are “trans?”
        Or is the rate of suicide so high because the current “progressive” agenda forced them to make decisions before they were ready (or capable of understanding the long term impacts), and now their lives (and bodies) are destroyed?
        .
        Personally, I am leaning toward the second one.

    • Article 4, Section 4, US Constitution “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…” Supplementing and dumbing down clear constitutional language with “the future of democracy” and “our democratic republic” shows your true leftist intent.

      • And…
        Despite the fact she is here, replying to comments, she is surprisingly silent on my direct question. How exactly does Mrs. N see democracy destroyed if President Trump is on the ballot?
        .
        Crickets… crickets…

    • In order to get all subjects adoring the all-powerful State to the exclusion of all other relationships, they must first destroy those relationships. The relationship between a parent and child is extremely strong, so transgender kids is the knife they are using the sever it.

  6. On par with having to “ affirm “ a person that wasn’t elected to be president. In the days past, it use to be said dream big. Now it’s “ pretend BIG “

  7. And yet no one wants to admit the truth: the real insurrection happened on November 3, 2020 and was certified on January 6, 2021, and furthered by the primaries and general “elections” in 2022. The actions of our current government (on both “sides”) are not those of people who represent this country or its citizens.

  8. I proffer this theory:
    The real issue here seems to point to the inescapable truth that LGBT….. do in general NOT procreate. In order to grow and mainstream the movement and have control over next generation’s ideals and values, teachers and school are attempting to sneak their lifestyle into the classroom under the guise of biology/social studies or sex-ed to ostensibly “help” emotionally vulnerable youth to come out or encourage them change who they are. The push-back from parents has been tremendous and universally condemned the usurpation of parental rights.
    Here this new rule targets a group of children, whose parent have lost the right to have a say or offer alternative explanations and the government demands that foster parents feed a potential psychosis instead of seeking help. I fear that this approach does nothing to reduce the suicide rate in any way, as true meaningful support and love will do what is needed not necessarily what is currently politically in vogue.

  9. Mrs N uses the phrase, “…legitimate existence of folks that are not of socially defined genders.”, as if it isn’t illegitimate on its own accord, in a vain attempt to legitimize social constructs the defy science itself..and then goes on to back it up with links to pseudo science and suggest to those that have a firm grasp on the science of gender that reading such drivel will somehow bring them into the woke world of some sort of reality that isn’t real at all.
    To Mrs N, while I appreciate your kind yet passive aggressive approach in responding to this topic, here’s a link to some light reading for you that will introduce you to the twisted attempts to deconstruct reality in order to build it back into the fantasies of the left: ‘https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/405400.The_Death_of_Right_and_Wrong

    • I appreciate the conciliatory tone, although there’s a niggling of doubt with the suggestion of the proffered articles are pseudo-science a term which conjures images of alchemists with pointy hats and eyes of newts (or is it toad?). It’s a matter of personal preference to avoid dwelling on conspiracies by undefined groups such as leftists. Psychology and sociology are not pseudo science. And, despite much of the gray areas around gender identity and engendered controversy in how a person can personally explain it, the issue is was/is foster parenting and acceptable standards as set forth by the government, considering that the children involved are not adopted nor the actual offspring of the adults caring for the kids, that the kids are in effect ‘wards of the state’
      I did come across an article not long ago with the intriguing title that humans don’t have free will, but didn’t have time to read it, so am still wondering how the author wanted to support the proposition.

  10. This commentary started out as clarification about the government role in affirming the rights of children in the foster care system as some sort of complaint about President Biden, related to the fact that trumph would never involve himself in social welfare programs, and my opinion that he is fundamentally anti-democracy. It’s very very difficult after five years of continual hassle for me to see anything that trumph accomplished in his executive position for the good of the country.

    In my opinion, trumph represents self-interested criminal intent, only, and explaining any of the whimsical agenda he seems to be proposing defies logic. Anyone that follows him like a will-o-wisp, is being led by the nose. The claims, pronouncements, promises trumph makes are empty. meaningless words without value or merit based on ‘anti-whatever’, and especially ‘anti-‘ anything of solid benefit to the majority, for the general good.

    How can a decent conservative Republican feel that trumph will represent them? He’s already provided out nation with five years of havoc. He’s says he wants to change the US Constitution. None of the original framers were so reckless as to proclaim the idea of a basic contract with the government was all their own personal invention.
    My folks were Republicans as are most members of my family. They all are trustworthy, honest, hardworking, and well-respected in their communities, and trumph represents absolutely nothing of their decency and those of the other Republican that I admire.

    Still, I’m not sure where the line of questions was leading. There are already basic facts widely published about the election, subsequent audits, investigations, recounts, documented electoral college votes, etc.

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