Foster Care

(New York, June 9, 2008) — Lambda Legal, in collaboration with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), today announced two projects to build the capacity, awareness and skills of social workers and other child welfare professionals serving LGBTQ youth living out of home in foster care, juvenile justice centers, and homeless shelters.

(ATLANTA, March 19, 2003)- A Mississippi judge today ordered the state to issue a birth certificate for a 5-year-old boy who was born in Mississippi and adopted by a lesbian couple from another state. Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund filed a lawsuit against the state in 2001 for refusing to issue a birth certificate listing the child’s two parents, leaving him without any legal documentation of his name, the names of his parents or the date and place of his birth

Washington, DC - The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (Lambda Legal) have launched an historic partnership to fundamentally change the way lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are treated in the nation’s foster care system. The three-year venture, “Fostering Transitions: CWLA/Lambda Legal Joint Initiative To Support LGBTQ Youth and Adults Involved with the Child Welfare System,” is supported by a grant from the Andrus Family Fund.

(Washington D.C., August 16, 2006) — Today, Lambda Legal and the Child Welfare League of America launched a new publication to serve as a guide for helping the child welfare system to better meet the needs of LGBTQ youth in care.

(New York, January 11, 2007) — Today, Lambda Legal and the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) launched Getting Down to Basics, a new tool kit designed to provide information to professionals and others interested in helping meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth within the child welfare system.