Help Wanted: LGBT Families To Adopt
Britain has certainly moved forward over the last few years, accepting that our families have amazingly loving homes and have the same ability to provide support to children as heterosexually coupled families.
The country’s first ever National LGBT Adoption and Fostering Week kicked off this past week highlighting powerful stories of adoption and foster families as well as the localities and organizations that are on the forefront of helping all children find homes that are loving. This is at a time when gay adopters and foster parents are being viewed in a different light, not only by those empowered to place the children, such as social workers and commissioners but also by the public who are beginning to see the reality of excluding loving homes, even those parented by gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender couples.
In recent surveys that were done at the behest of New Family Social there was a great amount of support and recognition for the strengths of LGBT couples.
In a recent press release by the organizers of LGBT AF Week they point out that “at a time when adoption figures are at a 10 year low, a new study shows lesbian and gay people often have the right mix of skills and experience to raise children who have been in  care, and give them a great new start in life.”
72% of social workers surveyed saw the “amount of energy and enthusiasm†LGBT adopters bring to the process as a significant strength.
76% saw “openness to difference, and supporting a child with a sense of difference†as equally important.
For a long time, LGBT people tended to be seen as a “last resort†when placing children. Now adoption and fostering agencies see them as having a key role to play in meeting the urgent need for more new homes for children in care.
Considering itself as a campaign that is working to recruit LGBT couples that perhaps in the past have been denied or turned away or those who have recently become able to foster or adopt children, the LGBT AF Week is working hard with events that are making all sides of the issues facing displaced children.
Hugh Thornbery, Strategic Director of Children’s Services at Action for Children, says
“Over the years, our LGBT foster carers and adopters have helped to transform many
children’s lives. We welcome more applications from LGBT foster carers and adopters; the
main thing is that you are able to give children and young people the care and support
they need to be happy and fulfilled.â€
Andy Leary-May, Director of New Family Social, says: “More and more LGBT people are
choosing adoption and fostering as a way to form a family, and we want prospective
parents to see just how rewarding it can be, and how much advice and support is on offer
from our huge community of families around the UK. The fact that so many agencies want to recruit from the LGBT community show just how far things have come in the past 5 or 6 years.  Social workers are becoming more aware of our strengths, and we are being treated more fairly, and are being matched with children more quicklyâ€.
It is a great joy that many are becoming involved in the process of supporting the public system that cares for children. On their website they highlight stories of successful couples such as Lee and Stuart. Both came to the decision after much reflection and thought and approached it as being able to become a foster home that would be able to help as many children as possible giving them the ability to experience a happy and safe home, even if it was for a brief period of time.
One of the greatest trends is that it isn’t just larger centers that are opening up their adoption policies and becoming progressive. Suffolk County in England, with a total population for the whole county of just under 750,000, has moved towards LGBT supportive adoption.
Suffolk County Council’s fostering and adoption services believe the LGBT community is a huge, untapped resource of potential adopters and foster carers.
In a local article published this past week, Graham Newman, the council’s portfolio holder for children, schools and young people’s services, said: “It’s important that Suffolk County Council recruits adopters and foster carers from all walks of life to provide much-needed homes for Suffolk’s vulnerable children. We’re supporting this year’s campaign in an effort to encourage more people from the LGBT community to come forward and consider this life-changing opportunity. Over the last few years, Suffolk’s adoption agency has approved and successfully placed children with gay and lesbian adopters, and we hope this year’s campaign will encourage more people to come forward.â€
At a time when there are growing divides in the United States as well as Canada between right wing religious groups and the LGBT and socially progressive communities, it is great to see that there are agencies who are working towards what is right and not the best talking point.
Perhaps someone would like to inform NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, and Maggie Gallagher that the world isn’t collapsing and children are being loved and cared for … yes, by LGBT couples.
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Growing up in Northern Ontario as a Jehovah’s Witness, Michael Talon experienced firsthand the struggle for equality. Now living in the U.S. he works with advocates for federal equality, including immigration. Michael currentlty owns and operates OnRecord Media, which works with LGBT supportive companies and organizations helping to create an economy and political atmosphere that focuses on inclusive policies and employment.
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House Republicans are circulating a “menu” of options that Speaker Mike Johnson’s conference could chose from—reportedly a massive $5 trillion worth of federal government programs to put on the chopping block to pay for the President-elect’s promised priorities, including tax cuts and border security.
According to Politico, there is an “early list” of proposed cuts (below) that “includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and ‘reimagining’ the Affordable Care Act.” Also, in addition to suggesting cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), “the document floats clawing back bipartisan infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act funding.”
Politico also reports that Republicans appear to be considering cuts to “the country’s largest anti-hunger program”—or, SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps. This would “spark massive opposition from Democrats and would also face some GOP resistance.”
There is far more, including siphoning about $2.3 trillion from Medicaid, a federal government program that has been providing critical health insurance for low-income adults and children for six decades.
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The early list, published by Politico, has positive-sounding categories like “Making Medicaid Work for the Most Vulnerable,” but within that are proposals like “Medicaid Work Requirements.”
Republicans have for years been trying to institute work requirements for Medicaid recipients, despite the fact that about two-thirds of recipients who are able to work are already employed.
“An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that a national Medicaid work requirement would result in 2.2 million adults losing Medicaid coverage per year (and subsequently experiencing increases in medical expenses), and lead to only a very small increase in employment,” KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) reported in 2023.
The list also proposes “Ending Cradle-to-Grave Dependence,” which, among other items, suggests “Reduce TANF by 10 Percent.”
According to the federal government, “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a federally funded, state-run program. Also known as welfare, TANF helps families pay for” items including food, housing, home energy, and child care.
Republicans also suggest they can save $152 billion in the section titled, “Reimagining the Affordable Care Act.”
Politico got a hold of a leaked list of GOP plans to cut federal spending on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act
www.politico.com/news/2025/01…— Cynthia Cox (@cynthiaccox.bsky.social) January 10, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Politico adds that Republicans are “also eyeing repealing significant Biden administration health care rules, which could include ending a rule requiring minimum staffing levels at nursing homes.” It is unclear how that would provide cost savings to the federal government.
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They also suggest they can pull $468 billion in savings by putting President Joe Biden’s climate policies “on the chopping block.”
Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill on social media noted: “Huge cuts to SNAP – the country’s largest anti-hunger program – proposed in here…would quickly hit +40 million low-income Americans…it’s already triggering immense backlash among some GOP centrists + even more conservative Rs.”
“Speaker Johnson can’t afford any GOP defections,” she added.
Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast characterized the proposals as “Taking food stamps away from hungry children to pay for tax cuts for wealthy people.
Salaam Bhatti, the director of the Food Research and Action Center, remarked: “Cutting & gutting SNAP and kicking millions of poor people off the program at a time when people voted because they can’t afford to put food on the table is the most out of touch thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Trump voters in red states who rely on those programs are going to love this,” quipped Alex Gonzalez, a political analyst and editor-in-chief for Latino Public Policy Foundation. “Trump wants to cut $5.6 trillion from federal programs to fund $10 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Ironically, red states depend more on these programs than blue states.”
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Image via Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump, set to move back to Washington in ten days after he is sworn in as the nation’s 47th President, is reportedly in talks to buy back his former D.C. hotel, a source of constitutional concern during his first term, where foreign governments and dignitaries could spend lavishly. Some legal experts warned of possible violations of the Emoluments Clause.
“Donald Trump’s real-estate company is in talks to reclaim its former Washington, D.C., hotel, a move that could offer an early test of how the president-elect will handle potential conflicts of interest,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Eric Trump this week met at his family’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with an executive from merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners, which controls the long-term lease on the hotel, according to people familiar with the matter.”
“An executive vice president at the company, Eric Trump discussed purchasing the lease, though the talks are still preliminary and may not lead to any sale, these people said,” The Journal added. “The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., is now a Waldorf Astoria and operates in the Old Post Office building, which is owned by the federal government and was leased to the Trumps. Trump opened the hotel in 2016, but sold the lease rights in 2022 for $375 million.”
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Bloomberg News, also reporting on what it calls “early talks to reacquire its former Washington hotel,” notes that critics “said the mixing of business and political activities was a conflict of interest. The hotel was at the center of at least two lawsuits accusing the president of violating the emoluments clause of the US Constitution, which bars presidents from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments.”
According to a report in The Independent, the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C. took in more than $3.7 million from foreign governments during Trump’s tenure as President. “This raises concerns about possible violations of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which says that Congress should approve any gifts to officeholders from foreign governments.”
The U.S. Secret Service spent at least $1.4 million at his D.C. hotel as well, according to an ABC News report citing congressional documents.
“The Trump Organization on some occasions charged the Secret Service more than five times the government rate to stay at Donald Trump-owned properties while the agency was protecting him and his family,” ABC News also reported.
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Legal experts and a watchdog group are once again expressing concern.
“Instead of mitigating conflicts of interest ahead of his inauguration, looks like Trump is doubling down on corruption by trying to get the lease on the DC hotel back,” warned CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
CQ Roll Call White House Correspondent and editor-at-large John T. Bennett responded to CREW by saying, “Not sure why anyone would expect him to, after all these years.”
New York Times’ business investigations reporter David Enrich notes: “The Trumps are looking to reclaim their DC hotel, which is down the street from the White House and was a magnet for conflicts of interest in his first administration.”
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Image via Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump, at 10:07 AM ET on Friday, was sentenced by Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan after a jury of his peers found him guilty on 34 criminal felony counts of business fraud for what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg described as “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal his illegal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.”
He received no punishment. In 10 days, Donald Trump will become the first person to enter the White House as President of the United States as a convicted felon, barring any extraordinary efforts.
Trump’s “conviction, a Class E felony offense, is eligible for a penalty of up to four years in prison and several thousands of dollars in fines per count,” Politico reports. But Judge Merchan “instead issued a so-called ‘unconditional discharge,’ a decision that will spare the incoming president any jail time, fines or probation.”
Merchan told Trump, “This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgement of conviction, without encroaching on the highest office of the land is unconditional discharge,” The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports.
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Trump said Thursday night he will appeal the conviction.
The President-elect was allowed to appear virtually and was accompanied by his attorney, Todd Blanche. Trump has indicated he will nominate Blanche to be the United States Deputy Attorney General.
an image from Trump’s sentencing pic.twitter.com/ds2yP7hoKQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 10, 2025
A billionaire real estate magnate who entered politics with no experience in 2015 by showcasing his wealth and attacking Mexican immigrants, Trump found his 2016 presidential campaign in jeopardy after the “Access Hollywood” tape was released. It showed a grown man making lewd comments about women, including what many perceived as him joking about, and appearing to brag and admit to, sexual assault. Originally recorded in 2005, it was released just one month before the 2016 election to widespread and bipartisan condemnation. Denying his comments were admitting to sexual assault, Trump called it “locker room talk.”
Trump was found to have paid “hush money” to adult film actress Stormy Daniels—with whom he reportedly had a sexual encounter—in what prosecutors said was an effort to protect his presidential campaign.
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump in March of 2023. He was arraigned days later. The jury trial was held in April of 2024. Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts.
Trump had made desperate attempts to delay sentencing, which originally had been scheduled for July 11, and had already been postponed twice. But Thursday night, after three New York courts refused his requests, the U.S. Supreme Court also refused to stay Friday’s sentencing.
“Over the past week, Trump’s lawyers filed hundreds of pages of high-pitched arguments in four courts, at every level of the NY judiciary and SCOTUS, in a failed bid to stop these proceedings,” reported Just Security’s Adam Klasfeld.
During Friday’s sentencing, New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass berated Trump and his actions.
“This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm’s way,” he told Judge Merchan, according to Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker.
Steinglass added that Trump “engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy. Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposely bred disdain … for the rule of law,” Uebelacker also reported.
Klasfeld reported that Steinglass also told the court: “Today’s sentence ‘cements’ Trump’s ‘status as a convicted felon’ and ‘gives full respect to the jury’s verdict.'”
“After confirming that prosecutors recommend a sentence of unconditional discharge,” Klasfeld added, “Assistant DA Joshua Steinglass tears into [Trump] and his ‘threats’ to ‘retaliate against prosecutors.'”
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Politico’s Kyle Cheney observed, “The reality of Trump’s long-delayed sentence means he will have to fight the appeal while in office, a dynamic his lawyers argued would be a distraction on the presidency. But an appeal is also his only chance to erase the ‘felon’ label, and he seems eager to begin that process.”
“NOW you can call him a convicted felon,” remarked NBC News Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian.
Some critics, including legal experts, are expressing disappointment and frustration.
“Donald Trump sentenced to a complete and total victory over the justice system,” civil rights lawyer Matthew Segal, the co-director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative, wrote from his personal social media account.
“Trump, escaping all punishment for dozens of felonies, says he’s been treated ‘very unfairly,'” observed Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall.
“45, 47, Felon,” remarked former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade, an MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst.
SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah, a lawyer, lamented the outcome: “No where can you find a person convicted of 34 felonies who is sentenced to no penalties. Period,” he wrote.
“Trump should not be heading to the White House. He should be reporting to prison,” he added.
Obeidallah also predicted that “Trump will 100% commit more crimes in the next few years. How do I know that? Simple, because Trump knows he will never be held accountable.”
Former TIME magazine managing editor Richard Stengel, who served as an Under Secretary of State for President Barack Obama, commented: “I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to live in a country where no person—not a president-elect, not a president—is above the law.”
MSNBC/NBC News legal correspondent Lisa Rubin notes that “now that the sentencing is over, the gloves could come off. Why? Merchan has no more leverage over Trump. The sentencing is over, and so, according to a June 2024 order, is the gag order Trump constantly complains about and frequently distorts. That order expressly expires with ‘the imposition of sentence.'”
READ MORE: ‘Mexican America’: President of Mexico Trolls Trump With Vintage Map
Image via Reuters
‘Slashing Welfare’: GOP Eyes Chopping $5 Trillion to Pay for Trump Priorities—Like Tax Cuts
Trump Trying to Buy Back His DC Hotel Seen as ‘Magnet’ for Conflicts of Interest: Reports
‘45, 47, Felon’: Trump Sentenced But Expert Warns ‘Now the Gloves Could Come Off’
‘MAGA Friendly’ Fetterman Blasted for Accepting Trump Mar-a-Lago Invite
Alito’s ‘Unmistakable Breach’ Warrants Recusal in Trump Case: Judicial Policy Expert
News3 days ago‘45, 47, Felon’: Trump Sentenced But Expert Warns ‘Now the Gloves Could Come Off’
News4 days agoAlito’s ‘Unmistakable Breach’ Warrants Recusal in Trump Case: Judicial Policy Expert
News4 days ago‘MAGA Friendly’ Fetterman Blasted for Accepting Trump Mar-a-Lago Invite
News3 days agoTrump Trying to Buy Back His DC Hotel Seen as ‘Magnet’ for Conflicts of Interest: Reports
News2 days ago‘Slashing Welfare’: GOP Eyes Chopping $5 Trillion to Pay for Trump Priorities—Like Tax Cuts
News4 days ago‘All Eyes on SCOTUS’ After Trump Loses Sentencing Bid at Top NY Court