Youth in Out-of-Home Care

Today, Lambda Legal submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of itself and 26 local, state, and national organizations that serve LGBTQ youth urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold an appellate court ruling denying Catholic Social Services’ (“CSS”) request that Philadelphia be ordered to contract with CSS for foster parent licensing and recruitment while allowing CSS to refuse to license same-sex couples to foster children who can’t safely return to their own homes.

Today the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released The High Stakes in the Fulton Case: Undermining the Vital Role of Child Welfare Laws & Regulations in Protecting America’s Children.

The COVID-19 pandemic reveals a reality we need to face: LGBTQ+ youth are pipelined into carceral systems at higher rates than their non-LGBTQ+ peers, placed at disproportionately high risk of contracting the virus, and too often receive substandard care. It’s time we understand LGBTQ+ youth mass incarceration as a critical public health issue.

The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, an appeal by Catholic Social Services (CSS), a taxpayer-funded child welfare agency, which claims a constitutional right to turn away same-sex couples seeking to provide loving homes to children in the public foster care system.