Adoption is a difficult and highly emotionally charged subject for any family. Many LGBTQ+ individuals and families have had first-hand experience either as adopted children or as adoptive parents. The first part of this program explores the issues and concepts of family, adoption, and the experiences on both sides of the adoption story.
The second part of this program explores the tension between civil rights and religious liberties and the legal challenges adoptees face to full recognition and acceptance. The panel will discuss the legal issues presented in Fulton and Marouf and provide an overview of The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2022 (“ACA”). The panel will further discuss its importance for transnational adoptees (the ACA, if passed, would confer automatic citizenship on an estimated 35,000 international adoptees excluded from the automatic citizenship provision of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (“CCA”) for being 18 years of age and older as of the CCA’s effective date.).