Adoption and foster placement is a matching process. Caseworkers seek to find the family that is the best match for each child.

Categorical exclusions, which throw away individuals who could meet the needs of children, seriously undermine this goal.

Applicants should be assessed on the basis of their abilities to successfully parent a child needing family membership and not on their race, ethnicity or culture, income, age, marital status, religion, appearance, differing life style, or sexual orientation.

The rejection of blanket exclusions in favor of the principle that placement decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis is well-established in the child welfare field. Indeed, it is reflected in the Child Welfare League of America's Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services [CWLA Standards]:

The Standards are formulated "based on current knowledge, the developmental needs of children, and tested ways of meeting these needs most effectively."

only exceptions being for those who have demonstrated conduct that is dangerous to children, such as those convicted of violent crimes or drug offenses.

Case-by-case evaluation is such a central principle of child welfare practice that categorical exclusions have become aberrations in child welfare law around the country, the

Until the 1970s, generally only middle-class, white, married, infertile couples in their late twenties to early forties, who were free of any significant disability were considered suitable to adopt.

Many agencies excluded applicants who did not meet this ideal such as older couples, low-income families, disabled people, and single adults.

many individuals who were rejected were valuable parenting resources.

But by the 1970s, adoption policy and practice moved away from such exclusions as the field recognized that they were arbitrary and that

subject every applicant to a rigorous evaluation process.

Whether gay or straight, no one is approved to adopt or foster a child unless he or she clears a child abuse and criminal records check, a reference check, an evaluation of physical and mental health, and a detailed home study that examines the applicant's maturity, family stability, and capacity to parent.

a caseworker first determines that the placement is the best match available for a particular child. ...

Blanket exclusions of lesbians and gay men from adopting or fostering—like any other blanket exclusions—deny children access to available safe, stable, and loving families.

For example, a caseworker could not place a child with a gay nurse who is willing to adopt a child with severe medical needs even if there are no other available prospective adoptive parents with the skills necessary to take care of that child.

a blanket rule would prevent a caseworker from placing a child with a lesbian aunt with whom the child has a close relationship.

Instead, that child would have to be placed with strangers, even though the child welfare profession agrees that, wherever possible, children should be placed with relatives.

By reducing the number of potential adoptive and foster parents, categorical exclusions of lesbians and gay men condemn many children to a childhood with no family at all.

Across the country, more than 118,000 children are waiting to be adopted.

Many wait for years in foster care or institutions; some wait out their entire childhoods, never having a family of their own.

But most of the children in the child welfare system in this country are not healthy infants.

They are older children and teens, children with serious psychological and behavioral problems, children with challenging medical needs, and groups of siblings who need to be placed together.

The child welfare agencies go to great lengths to recruit adoptive and foster parents for these children, even posting photos and profiles of waiting children on the Internet.

They provide financial subsidies to people who adopt children who are in state care so that the expense of caring for a child is not a barrier to low-income people adopting. Yet thousands of children are still left waiting for families.

The shortage of foster families means that some children get placed far away from their biological families, communities and schools; some get placed in overcrowded foster homes; and some get no foster family at all and instead are placed in institutional settings.

For children waiting to be adopted, the shortage of adoptive families means that some will remain in foster care for years, where they often move around among temporary placements.

Some will have to be separated from their siblings in order to be adopted.

Some will be placed with families that are not well-suited to meet their needs. And some will never be adopted, and instead "age out" of the system without ever getting to have a family of their own.

Excluding gay people ... does nothing whatsoever to protect children or promote good placements.

You do not have to be a child welfare expert to understand how scarring it is for a child to grow up without the love and security of a parent.

scientific research confirms the importance to children's development of forming a parent-child relationship and having a secure family life.

children who are adopted are much less likely than children who spend much of their childhoods in foster care or residential institutions to be maladjusted.

Young people who age out of foster care without ever becoming part of a family are the most seriously affected. These young people are significantly more likely than their peers to drop out of school, be unemployed, end up homeless and get involved in criminal conduct.

approximately 20,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 21 are discharged from foster care each year. A national study prepared for the federal government reported that within two years after discharge, only 54% had completed high school, fewer than half were employed, 60% of the young women had given birth to a child, 25% had been homeless, and 30% were receiving public assistance.

each qualified lesbian or gay parent who is excluded because of his or her sexual orientation represents a potential loving family for a waiting child.