Once again, Trump is planning to make it easier for adoption agencies to deny LGBT couples the opportunity to adopt or foster children. Obama banned adoption and foster care agencies from receiving federal funding if they were to discriminate against LGBT couples. Religious organizations weren’t huge fans of this ban, arguing that it was against their beliefs.  

Cathy Sakimura, deputy director and family law director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights says, “There are very different laws from state to state in terms of how parents are protected, especially if they are unmarried.  You can be completely respected and protected as a family in one state and be a complete legal stranger to your children in another. To know that you could drive into another state and not be considered a parent anymore, that’s a pretty terrifying situation.”  In some states, like Maryland or Massachusetts, there are no laws against LGBT adoption at all. But in other places like South Dakota, there are laws that create religious barriers that allow agencies to refuse to place children in situations that violate the group’s religious beliefs.  There are numerous laws that affect LGBT couples from surrogacy to custody.  When the LGBT community could marry, people thought that the fight for equal rights was over.  They didn’t acknowledge that not having the right to have children was something that they didn’t have.  “It seems both insulting and ridiculous,” said Sommer of Lambda Legal.  “But sadly, the reality is, if you can manage it, you should do it.”   

As said before, Donald Trump is planning on allowing adoption agencies to deny their services to LGBT couples when it comes down to adoption.  This policy would have a huge impact on a ton of LGBT couples that are looking to adopt. The department of Health and Human Services released the proposed rule, which would roll back a 2016 discrimination regulation instituted by the administration of Barack Obama which included sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.  Any organizations that get department funding are “now free to discriminate” if they really wanted to. 

As of 2019, there are more than 443,000 children in foster care and about 114,000 of those children cannot be returned to their families and are waiting to be adopted.  A study was done and it shows that 114,000 LGBT families are far more willing to adopt than heterosexual couples. This would be 21.4 percent versus 3 percent. Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign said that Trump’s proposal was “horrific” and would permit organizations to discriminate against LGBT couples.  

Though people may find this a tragedy, Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, completely supports what Trump is saying and says “Thanks to President Trump, charities will be free to their religious beliefs and the reality that children do best in a home with a married mom and dad.”  Despite what Perkins says, it’s been shown that same-sex couples that want to adopt are usually older and more financially stable than other types of adoptive parents. Another thing that has been recognized is the fact that good parenting is not influenced by sexual orientation or gender identity.  Any couple whether they be lesbian or gay is capable of raising their child to have the same social mental abilities as children with straight parents. 

Though it is still being argued about whether or not the LGBT community will have human rights or not, they will continue to fight for it.  Marriage was a right that shouldn’t have had to be given to them, and now they have to struggle for the right to have their own children.