Religious License to Discriminate Against LGBTQ+ Kids Act

Official Title: Protecting Religious Freedom for Foster Families Act (HR 6133)

Introduced by Reps. Josh Brecheen (R-OK) and Mary Miller (R-IL) 

This bill would prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing the proposed rule, entitled “Safe and Appropriate Foster Care Placement Requirements for Titles IV–E and IV–B. This Biden-era rule directed state and tribal agencies across the country to fully implement existing protections for LGBTQI+ youth in foster care, including implementing a case plan that addresses the specific needs of the child including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, as well as children who are non-binary, or have non-conforming gender identity or expression. 

Allows foster parents to discriminate against LGBTQ+ children 

• Under the guise of not forcing foster families to violate their sincerely held religious or moral beliefs, this bill would allow discrimination against LGBTQI+ children in taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care services.  It would allow these agencies to make decisions for children in their care based on religious beliefs rather than on the best interests of the child.
• It would also create a license to discriminate and allow agencies to flatly refuse to consider well-qualified prospective families for child placement— and still receive government funding.
• The Biden-era rule this bill seeks to block would have made it clear that all Administration for Children and Families (ACF) placements must be safe and appropriate for all children, including LGBTQI+ children, and it specifically requires that the agency receiving the federal funds must ensure that family placements are free from harassment, mistreatment, and abuse, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
• The rule would have created a mechanism for families who wish to do so to qualify as Designated Placements for LGBTQI+ children, which requires specific training and provision of appropriate resources that support the health and well-being of the young person such as mental health care.
• Every LGBTQI+ person in the foster care system must have access to a Designated Placement and an agency must have an adequate number of Designated Placements available to meet the need.
• Children fourteen and older, and other children known by agencies to be LGBTQI+, must receive information about how to request a Designated Placement, how to receive additional services to help an existing placement become a Designated Placement, and the protections they have against retaliation.
• Gives foster care providers the option to seek a religious exemption to the proposed requirements.  

Risks putting LGBTQI+ Children in hostile environments 

• The bill would permit foster families and parents to not honor a foster child’s choice of name and pronouns that correspond with their preferred gender identity.
• The bill argues that the rule must be eliminated to protect religious freedom. However, taxpayer-funded foster care agencies should never use religious litmus tests to deny these children the chance of having a safe home with a loving family.  
• Our government also has a duty to protect vulnerable children in the foster care system.
• Extremists and their politician allies want to misuse religious freedom to allow agencies that contract with the government to be allowed to turn away qualified parents and children because they are the “wrong” religion, are LGBTQ, or do not satisfy the agencies’ religious tests. We stand with the foster children and parents who were denied because they couldn’t pass taxpayer-funded agencies’ religious tests.