U.S. Rep.'s plea for LGBTQ+ couples right to adopt

Brut America

"When you allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ+ couples, you deprive children of families who are going to love them."  Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney shared the story of adopting his children while opposing a regulation that could allow agencies to refuse LGBTQ+ couples on religious grounds.

Transcript

00:0013 days after that child was born,

00:03she was home in New York with two loving parents,

00:05and that child is 19 years old today

00:08and a freshman at John Jay College in New York.

00:10And she's a beautiful young woman.

00:12And she would not have had a mom and a dad.

00:16So you keep having them and we'll keep raising them,

00:19is the way we felt about it.

00:21Did she deserve a mom and a dad?

00:22Yes, she did.

00:24But she also deserved people who loved her

00:26who were going to raise her.

00:27And that is what is at stake today.

00:29Our third child, the adoption agency,

00:31same one, two years later, came to us, same story.

00:34Very similar.

00:35They sought out LGBTQ parents

00:38because they knew they would adopt when others wouldn't.

00:41♪♪

00:43♪♪

00:57You know, in listening to the ranking members' opening remarks,

01:00I was thinking maybe the day will come

01:02where people like me and Mark,

01:04some of the people behind us, won't have to come in here

01:08like supplicants seeking our basic rights.

01:11And we won't be treated to expressions of discrimination

01:14dressed up as religious liberty.

01:16But even today, that is not the country we live in.

01:21You know, I've been with my husband for almost 28 years.

01:29We were allowed to get married just five years ago.

01:32And for 27 of those years, we've been raising children.

01:36We have three children.

01:38My oldest came to us when he was not quite three years old.

01:43He had been barely eating solid foods.

01:47He was sleeping in a drawer.

01:48He was living in Squalor,

01:50in one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City.

01:52His parents were heroin addicts.

01:55They had four children.

01:56I think they loved their children.

01:58I know they loved drugs more.

02:00And they were unable to take care of them.

02:02And we didn't set out to be parents.

02:04This wasn't about fulfilling some desire we had.

02:07It was because someone asked us if we could help.

02:09And we said we would.

02:11And soon after that, his mom OD'd.

02:16And there was no one to bury her.

02:17So we did.

02:20And his dad went to jail.

02:22And there was no one to take care of this little boy.

02:26So we did.

02:28And it was the greatest thing that ever happened to us.

02:32We'd been together for four months as a couple.

02:35That young man is 30 years old today.

02:38And I think if you asked him, Representative Heiss,

02:42about the family he was raised in,

02:45well, let's just say I'd go with what he has to say

02:48about the ability of LGBT couples to parent and to foster.

02:52And you know, it was a few years later

02:55that an adoption agency called us from Texas, sir.

03:01A group called the Adoption Alliance

03:03that was licensed in Texas and Nevada.

03:06And the reason they were calling us in New York

03:08was not because we were seeking to adopt.

03:10It was because they had learned in the 1990s

03:15that there were certain types of kids

03:17who were not gonna be adopted,

03:19where the circumstances of their birth,

03:21through no fault of their own, obviously,

03:22was difficult or confronting

03:26for traditional adoptive parents.

03:29Where there were issues of HIV or rape or incest,

03:34sometimes mixed with concerns about interracial adoption.

03:39And what these adoption agencies learned, to their credit,

03:43was that there were LGBT couples in cities like New York

03:47who would say yes to these children.

03:50Not as an alternative to the straight couple

03:53that was gonna raise them.

03:54As an alternative to never being adopted,

03:57because no one was gonna adopt these kids.

04:00And it was that insight that LGBT couples

04:04were willing to cross lines of difference

04:07because they had experience doing so in their own lives.

04:10That they had less preoccupation or hysteria

04:13with things like HIV.

04:14That they were more willing to adopt

04:16across lines of difference, like race or religion.

04:21That there was an opportunity for kids

04:22that would not have a home to have a home.

04:25And so it is because of that

04:28that on January 10th, 2001,

04:31I learned of my oldest daughter

04:33who had been born just five days earlier.

04:35We had no intention of adopting.

04:39That she had been born in Texas

04:41to a United States military member,

04:45excuse me, to the granddaughter

04:46of a United States military member.

04:47Her mom was 14 years old.

04:50She didn't even know she was pregnant.

04:51She was playing basketball and complained of cramps

04:54and delivered the baby when the doctors thought

04:58she had appendicitis.

04:59And they called us because no one else was gonna do it.

05:02And so 13 days later, my partner and I

05:08were standing in front of a Texas judge

05:10at eight o'clock in the morning

05:11before his docket started.

05:13And he said, are you fellas gonna raise this child?

05:15And we said, yes sir.

05:17And he finalized the adoption on the spot.

05:19No rescission rights in the state of Texas.

05:21So the point is, the point is,

05:23is when you allow people to discriminate

05:25against those couples, you deprive children

05:29of good moms, dads, families who are gonna love them.

05:33And when you dress it up as religious liberty,

05:36you simply sanction discrimination

05:38and deprive those children of a home that they deserve.

05:41And so we're here because the Trump administration,

05:43as we know, has green-lighted licensed discriminate laws

05:46to allow federally funded organizations,

05:49federally funded organizations to discriminate

05:52against adoptive and foster parents

05:54who don't share the organization's religious beliefs.

05:57And that means also LGBTQ parents

05:59and people of other religions won't be able to adopt.

06:02And those kids are the ones that are gonna lose.

06:04Hundreds of thousands of kids who need foster parents

06:08who need adoptive parents.

06:10That is the collateral damage that will ensue

06:12if we allow these discriminatory practices to occur

06:16under the guise of religious freedom.

06:19Our only goal when providing,

06:22our only goal when providing child services

06:25is to be looking out for the best interests of the kids.

06:27That's all that matters.

06:29LGBTQ couples are not afraid of that test.

06:32Parents are parents.

06:33Good parents are good parents.

06:35Bad parents are bad parents.

06:38And it doesn't matter what they look like, who they love.

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