May 19, 2015 Re: Bend the Arc Urges Cosponsorship of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act Dear Senator/Representative: In honor of National Foster Care Month, I write to you today about an important bill that I urge you to cosponsor, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF). This legislation—reintroduced today by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representatives John Lewis and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen—could open up millions of homes for the more than 400,000 children in our nation’s foster care system. Focused on the best interests of children in care, ECDF ensures that otherwise eligible foster and adoptive parents are not turned away simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. The primary reason hundreds of thousands of children remain in, or age out of, the foster care system is a lack of qualified homes. This is a moral travesty. The bill also prohibits discrimination on the basis of the sexual orientation and gender identity and expression of the child involved. As Jews, we are reminded throughout our sacred texts that the orphan, along with the widow and the stranger, need and deserve our special protection. As the largest national Jewish social justice organization focused exclusively on domestic policy, Bend the Arc cares deeply about creating an America in which all children can grow up with loving, supportive families that will set them on the path toward happy and healthy adulthood. It is unconscionable that we allow baseless discrimination to prevent qualified prospective parents from creating loving homes and families for children whose birth parents could not provide for them. These barriers are not only an affront to human dignity; they fail our society’s most vulnerable children. Again, I urge you to support the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF) and create a federal standard of nondiscrimination that enables more loving parents to open up their homes to children in foster care. Sincerely, Hadar Susskind Director, Bend the Arc Jewish Action