THE IMPRINT: U.S. Rep. Angie Craig Hopes Bill to End LGBTQ+ Discrimination in Foster Care ‘Leads to a Dialogue’

President Donald Trump’s attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in his second term started immediately this time last year. Shortly after his inaugural speech on Jan. 20, he directed federal agencies to recognize a binary, unchangeable definition of sex. His administration has targeted transgender military service members, shut down a suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, and tried to halt gender-affirming care for minors.

But that has not stopped U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who represents the south metro areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul, from reintroducing a bill that would keep federally funded adoption and foster care agencies from discriminating against LGBTQ+ parents and youth. 

The John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or marital status in those programs, prohibit the use of federal funds for so-called “conversion therapy” and create a resource center for LGBTQ+ foster and adoptive youth within the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. It would also require child welfare providers to be “culturally sensitive and respectful of the complex social identities” of the people receiving services, the bill language states.

The legislation has been attempted repeatedly since 2009, and its chances of passage now appear slimmer than ever in the current Republican-controlled Congress. But in an interview with The Imprint late last year, Craig described what has motivated her third push for the bill since 2019.

Roughly one-third of older foster youth are LGBTQ+, studies show. These young people are more likely to move frequently between foster homes, be placed in group homes and be hospitalized due to emotional distress. Though there is a dire need for more homes to take in neglected and abused children and youth, otherwise eligible foster and adoptive parents have been turned away in some states because they are LGBTQ+.

Yet since October, Trump’s pick to head the Administration for Children and Families, Alex Adams, has so far sought to roll back state rules that require foster parents to affirm the gender identity of foster youth, such as using preferred pronouns and facilitating medical care for transgender teens.

The fight to pass the bill that would counter those efforts is personal for Craig. In the late 1990s, she and her then-partner Debra Langston tried to adopt a child from a woman in Tennessee. But state law at the time did not allow the same-sex couple to both appear on the adoption papers. 

As a result, Craig and Langston spent nearly two years battling in court before they were able to finalize the adoption of their son, the oldest of four in a blended family. Craig later married her current wife, Cheryl Greene.

In a Dec. 16 phone conversation, Craig shared parts of her family’s story and her goals for the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act. She condemned a pending bill by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene banning gender-affirming care for minors that passed the House in December.

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

A similar version of the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act has been reintroduced repeatedly going back to 2009. I’m curious, what motivated you to sign on in 2019, and what pushed you to sign on again this year?

I had the honor and privilege of serving with John Lewis when I came into Congress in 2019, and this issue was very personal to both John Lewis and myself. We shared those stories with each other — how we’re both adoptive parents. 

My story is that my partner and I had to fight in court in the state of Tennessee to adopt the man who is now my 28-year-old son. So I know firsthand what it’s like, as a lesbian, to have to fight for the right to adopt your child. 

John Lewis so fundamentally believed and supported this concept that no state should allow discrimination against LGBTQ+ foster children or adoptive parents. Anyone who can provide a safe and loving home to a child should be considered in our adoption and foster care system.

What have been the obstacles to passing this bill?

We certainly have seen, unfortunately, in the last few years, a rise in LGBTQ discrimination again. Some of the fights that we thought we had won over the years, this current administration has pushed us backward.

I think when Democrats have control in the House — and the majority in the House — that we will be able to get this across the finish line. But we need a Senate, and we need a president who would sign it into law. And for that, I’m sure we’re probably going to need a different president than the one we currently have.

In reintroducing this bill, what do you hope to accomplish?

I hope it leads to a dialogue across the country that, at the end of the day, we should be doing everything possible to get foster children into stable and loving households. It’s as simple as that. 

My wife and I have been married legally since 2008 in our nation — 18 years, at this point. And we’ve been together longer than that. We’ve now raised four sons. Our oldest, Josh, is adopted. He’s turning 28 this month. We have another 28-year-old that my wife had, and I had our son Jacob, who is now 27. And then we have a 22-year-old that my wife had. So we have built this amazing family, and now we are the grandparents of three amazing little grandsons. We don’t call ourselves grandmas: We’re “Mimi” and “Gigi.” 

Our son Josh and his wife decided that they wanted their first child to be adopted — which made us so proud. And so we now have a grandson in our family who was adopted by my son and his wife as well, carrying on that legacy of providing a home for children who otherwise might not have a safe and secure home for themselves.

In terms of LGBTQ+ discrimination, you said earlier that fights you thought had been won over the years have been pushed backwards by the current administration. For you, what are some of the biggest recent hits?

The attacks on the trans community have been devastating. Literally, people who are willing to give their lives for our country and our nation’s military have been kicked out. Healthcare has been denied for them. In Congress, the bill by Marjorie Taylor Green that apparently she negotiated to get a vote — it’s a disgraceful bill. Republicans in Washington are trying to insert themselves into private healthcare decisions that should be between families and their doctors. And so every day we get up, and we fight these fights. 

We know that Republicans are trying to distract us from the issues that they have no plans for, like lowering costs and making health care more accessible to every American. But it’s not OK to use the LGBTQ community as a political weapon. Our lives are hard enough. We don’t need Washington politicians piling on. We just don’t.

In recent months, the head of the Administration for Children and Families, Alex Adams, sent letters to at least five states, telling them to review and change policies that require foster parents to affirm the gender of foster youth. What was your reaction to that news when it came out, and do you think this bill’s reintroduction is coming at a particularly important time?

The bill comes at a time where we have to understand that this president has no empathy at all. This administration has no empathy for children. 

That particular action, as well as other bills that are on the House floor, are really attacking LGBTQ youth. We shouldn’t have adult politicians making the lives of LGBTQ youth any harder than they already are.

In the past, you’ve shared how you’ve personally experienced discrimination as a lesbian mother trying to adopt in Tennessee. Looking back, how did that experience change you and your politics?

So many of my life experiences have had an impact on me, obviously, from growing up in a mobile home park and being raised by a single mom and my grandmother, to the fight to adopt our son Josh, as well as the fight to be able to marry my wife, Cheryl. So, it’s all those lived experiences that have led me to the point of wanting to fight on behalf of all Minnesotans. 

The truth is, too, it puts life and challenge in perspective. 

For almost two years, I woke up every single morning not knowing if our son Josh would be there that night to tuck in and put back to bed. All the things that come at me during the course of the day here in Congress or in life, I’ve already faced one of the hardest challenges and periods in my life — that uncertainty of not knowing how this country was going to treat me as an openly LGBTQ person. So, it certainly has made me want to fight to make sure that families like mine and kids like Josh have a loving family to come home to.