One former foster child told Colorado lawmakers she was forbidden from cooking breakfast because the noise would disturb her foster mother.
Another said she was forced to take birth control. A city councilwoman tearfully described how, years ago as a foster child, she took beatings to protect her little sister. And a girl who was a high school soccer star was no longer allowed to play after she was placed in foster care and had to move to a new town.
They’re asking the Colorado legislature to pass a “Bill of Rights for Foster Youth,” a formalized list that every foster child 5 and older would receive when they are placed in care.
The rights include not being locked in a room, having access to the internet and having appropriate luggage — instead of a trash bag — to carry clothes.
But it’s about 12 lines in the 15-page legislation that have caused hours of debate in a committee hearing and on the House floor.
Here’s what they say:
- Foster children and teens will have the right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
- They will have the right to “be referred to by” their preferred name and pronouns.
- They will have the right to attend, or refuse to attend, religious services and activities.
The four Republicans on the House Health and Human Services Committee wouldn’t support the bill because of those words, though they were outnumbered 9-4. Debate in the House, where the bill is still awaiting a vote, went on for hours as GOP lawmakers warned that Colorado could lose hundreds of Christian foster parents if the legislature passed the bill of rights as written.
About 30% of foster youth in Colorado identify as LGBTQ. An estimated 50% or more of foster homes are religious.
Colorado already has a shortage of foster homes, with 3,730 children in foster care and only 2,500 certified homes, said Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Littleton Republican.
“So what should we do? We should add a bunch of restrictions and regulations to these foster care families so that maybe even more will back down and we will end up with a plethora of children in the foster care system?” she asked.
Many Christian families, Bradley said, will not want to foster children if they are restricted from providing religious instruction and prohibited from parenting kids about gender identity or “even questioning if this is appropriate for the child.”
“I’ve had so many friends at church that foster kids,” she said. “They take them to church. They show them the love of Jesus. The state continues to pass legislation to promote LGBTQ-plus at the expense of individual choice of liberty, often forcing a conflict with deeply held religious beliefs.”
Former foster youth tell horror stories
A former foster child who identifies as LGBTQ and uses they/them pronouns said that while most of their foster homes respected their pronouns and identity, two Christian homes did not. “They refused to respect me and tried to convince me I would grow out of it,” Maddie, who wanted to go by only their first name to protect their privacy, told The Sun. “It’s been five years since then and I haven’t grown out of it.”
Maddie, who is now 21 and about to graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree in social work, was adopted as an adult. That was after they lived in a series of foster homes and attended five high schools, mainly in Colorado Springs.
In one home, Maddie wasn’t allowed to make breakfast “because we weren’t allowed to bother my foster mom while she was working” and the woman’s home office was near the kitchen.
Maddie said they once had their phone taken away for an entire summer, “cutting me off from all of my friends and a job opportunity.”
“I had it easy compared to some of the horror stories I’ve heard,” Maddie told lawmakers during a committee hearing. “You’re getting a small glimpse into the traumas we have endured because we did not have the rights we deserve as human beings.”
Another former foster child said that after playing three years of varsity soccer, volleyball and basketball in her hometown high school, she went into foster care and was devastated not to get to play sports her senior year. Maya Chandler said she lost out on a chance to play college soccer, but that wasn’t even the worst part.
“To me, sports were my therapy,” she said, choking up. “To know that I wasn’t able to do something like that was so heartbreaking and it hurt my chances of making new friends and connections with positive role models like I had with my coaches back home.”
Claire Carmelia, now a member of the Westminster City Council, said she was fed oatmeal or no food at all while in foster care in the early 1990s. She was “regularly beaten, drugged, locked in rooms instead of sent to school” and had her shoulder and hip dislocated multiple times because of the abuse.
“When I would protest at being beat or locked into rooms, or when I would offer myself up in exchange for punishing my younger sister who was a toddler, I was told, ‘When you’re older, you’ll have a say. When you’re 18, you’ll have rights,’” Carmelia said during testimony she struggled to get through. “And then I’d be slapped and sent away. Now, this can be the day that that changes.
“I am privileged to have the voice I wish I had then.”
Bill of rights would strengthen existing law, supporters say
The rights listed in the legislation are for the most part already in Colorado’s child welfare regulations, many of them outlined in 2011 law. But existing laws aren’t working as intended, according to Child Protection Ombudsman Stephanie Villafuerte.
“The bill provides youth with specific articulable rights, not just protections,” she said. “This is a critical legal distinction because it gives youth the right to ask a judge or others for specific care and services.”
The legislation also takes existing law a step further because it would require the state to notify children of their rights at every placement and explain what to do if they are not followed. “There has been no statewide implementation plan whatsoever in order to provide foster youth notice that their rights even existed,” Villafuerte said.
The ombudsman released a brief in 2021 calling on Colorado lawmakers to pass an official bill of rights for Foster Youth, as several other states have already done. The document is needed not only to provide foster children and teens with “concrete information about the care they can expect to receive while away from their families” but to make sure that foster families are “aware of and administer youths’ rights,” the brief states.
Besides gender identity and sexuality, the legislation says foster children will have “freedom from discrimination or harassment” due to race, ethnicity, religion, disability or HIV status.
The bill also lists “freedom from physical, sexual, emotional or other abuse,” including corporal punishment or isolation, and freedom from “unreasonable searches” and “invasions of privacy.” They will have the right to privacy when making or receiving phone calls or sending texts, it states.
Foster children are entitled to timely court proceedings, as well as timely notification from the Social Security Administration if they are entitled to benefits, the bill says. About 10% of foster kids get benefits because their parents have died or because they have a physical or intellectual disability.
They have the right not to take prescription medication unless authorized by a physician or court order. And they have the right to “culturally affirming food,” as well as clothing and hygiene products, the legislation says.
Chris Henderson, executive director of the Colorado Office of the Child’s Representative, a state agency that provides legal counsel for children, said that while there are many good foster homes in Colorado, there is a need for a legal document that guarantees children “basic needs” and “dignity.”
The bill of rights lists the “things that you would do as parents, as an aunt or uncle or as a grandparent,” he said.
“I never thought I would have to hear from a child that they wanted their hygiene or that they had to earn their hygiene or had to pay for it out of their own money,” he said. “Other hot topics the youth discussed with this bill were being able to do things that normal youth do, like play soccer, play volleyball, have an overnight at a friend’s house, and the one that makes the most angry, not having their belongings moved in trash bags.”
Kids don’t need to “get in the roil of transgender confusion”
Several Republicans said they loved the bill — minus the parts about LGBTQ rights.
Rep. Richard Holtorf, an Akron Republican, said he was appalled by the testimony of former foster children and said Colorado should strip certification from foster families who treat children poorly. “I know, in my community, a personal story of a family that did lock all their cabinets and wouldn’t let the kids have access to food,” he said.
Holtorf said he would support the legislation if lawmakers deleted the gender identity sections.
“I cannot support young, confused children … that just need to be kids and don’t need to get in the roil of transgender confusion,” he said. “When they grow up, it’s a free country, they can become who they want to become. But many of these kids, when they grow up, will realize that when they were young, they had a lot of thoughts that weren’t what they wanted to be.”
When the bill reached the full House last week, some Republicans said they were also concerned that the legislation could affect foster parents’ ability to discipline children in their care or protect them from harmful social media sites.
Rep. Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican, said the legislation was an example of government overstepping on parental rights. “You are restricting people from being able to check on the safety of their kids,” he said. “They can’t even search their rooms.”
Armagost also said he had received numerous emails from constituents who see the legislation as another way the state is trying to indoctrinate transgender ideals.
But Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat who identifies as queer and Christian, said she was angered that GOP lawmakers invoked religion to oppose the legislation.
“If you oppose this bill, it’s fine,” she said, “but please do not pretend that all Christians do. My church supports LGBTQ youth living and thriving and not being subjected to discrimination or harm simply because of who they are.”
The legislation’s prime sponsors are Rep. Lindsey Daugherty of Arvada, Rep. Jennifer Parenti of Erie, and Sen. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada, all Democrats. The bill is awaiting a final vote in the House before it would move to a Senate committee.