A New Tennessee Law Allows People With Anti-LGBTQ+ Beliefs to Adopt Queer and Trans Kids

Samantha Riedel
·4 min read
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Reginald Mathalone/AP Photo

The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) has scrapped a policy that required adoptive families to care for a child with “dignity and respect” regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, following the passage of a new “religious freedom” law this month.

On April 11, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Parent Protection Act, which prohibits DCS from requiring adoptive or foster families to “affirm, accept, or support” a policy regarding LGBTQ+ identity if it conflicts with “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Under the law, DCS may not deny an application based on the applicant’s religious beliefs, and further asserts that even if someone holds openly anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, being placed in their home would not be “contrary to the best interest of the child.” There are more than 6,000 youth currently in the state foster care system, according to one department estimate, who will be affected when the law takes effect July 1.

Since the law’s passage, the Tennessee Lookout reported this week, DCS officials will no longer mandate care that “promotes dignity and respect for all children/youth and families” regardless of gender or sexuality.” DCS spokesperson Ashley Zarach told the Lookout that the agency’s policies for LGBTQ+ youth are now “under review and will be updated on the web site once the review is complete.”

“Prior to this legislation, the DCS home study process included asking prospective foster and adoptive parents a series of questions to identify their placement preferences,” including questions about willingness to parent an LGBTQ+ child, a department spokesperson clarified in a statement to the Lookout. “Our goal always is to find the most appropriate placement to meet the unique needs of each child in our care.”

As the Lookout noted, the law has made Tennessee the first state in the nation to explicitly allow anti-LGBTQ+ adults to adopt queer and trans youth. Supporters of the law, like its author GOP Rep. Mary Littleton, have claimed it “does not disregard the values and beliefs of the child,” and will lead to better placements for children and increased interest in adoption or fostering among religious families. But LGBTQ+ advocates and Democratic lawmakers condemned the law, pointing out that it no longer requires the state to consider a child’s preference either.

“What’s really sad about this is there’s a really high volume of LGBTQ+ kids in the foster system whose needs aren’t being met now,” Molly Quinn, executive director of the LGBTQ+ nonprofit OUTMemphis, told the Lookout this week. “The fact that the state would accept a family that is willing to discriminate into this broken system with such vulnerable kids is difficult to understand.” Multiple studies have indicated that roughly one-third of youth in state foster systems across the U.S. are LGBTQ+. A 2021 survey by the Trevor Project found that 4.1% of LGBTQ+ youth reported having been in foster care at some point in their lives, compared to 2.6% of the general adult population.

Tennessee’s new law is the latest consequence of state Republicans’ ongoing war with the Biden administration. In an executive order last year, President Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to form policies protecting LGBTQ+ youth from being placed in homes that are “hostile to their gender identity or sexual orientation.” In response, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined 16 other states in opposing the order, claiming it was an illegal expansion of HHS authority, and would discourage religious families and “dedicated foster providers.”

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Christian adoption rights have long been a major priority among far-right fundamentalist Christians, and anti-LGBTQ+ organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom have lobbied for more laws like Tennessee’s (and against adoption for LGBTQ+ families). For decades, evangelicals have touted adoption as a way to “save” children in both body and soul, raising further concerns about an industry with already dubious ethics. Leaders in the “Quiverfull” evangelical movement, which encourages families to birth and raise as many Christian children as possible to serve in “God’s army,” have embraced international and domestic adoption as another way to maximize its juvenile recruits. Numerous adoption programs in Tennessee cater specifically to evangelicals, such as AGAPE, a Nashville-based organization with programs that include “[r]ecruiting, training, and preparing Christian families” to further their original goal of “finding Christian homes for orphaned children,” according to its website.

Tennessee’s new law comes amid a rising tide of hate crimes in the U.S. especially directed at LGBTQ+ youth, further concerning advocates about the increased potential for harm. “I’ve had adults telling me I need to go gas myself” during the current state legislative session, college freshman and Tennessee Equality Project activist Eli Givens told the Lookout this week. “[J]ust a wide array of threats [...] It’s bewildering that the same adults who told me to gas myself can adopt an LGBTQ child. That’s an extremely scary reality.”

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