TOPEKA — Kansas’ child welfare agency has drafted guidelines urging foster parents to allow LGBTQ kids in their care to “express themselves as they see themselves.”
The move has riled conservatives a little more than a year after the state granted legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that do not place children in LGBTQ homes.
The Department for Children and Families issued its draft guidance in mid-July, six months after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly took office.
It called for foster homes to recognize LGBTQ children by their preferred identities.
Conservatives saw it as a directive meant to reshape foster families’ lives. They also worry it’s an attempt to skirt a 2018 law that Kelly doesn’t like that protects faith-based adoption agencies refusing to place children in homes violating their religious beliefs.
