Agency seeks more gay parents

Unlike the Catholic Church, which is slamming the door on gay parents, an adoption agency in Oakland is actively searching for more gays and lesbians to become both foster and adoptive parents. Family Builders By Adoption is launching a new campaign to attract prospective LGBT parents to its doors.

Planned long before the controversy now circling around the Catholic Church, Family Builders is set to announce its new program Monday, March 27 at San Francisco City Hall. It is called "No Place Like Home" and is an amplification of the agency's long history of working with both gay men and lesbians seeking to become parents and LGBTQ youth in the foster care system.

"Our program is not another foster care dead-end for these youth. We want to get them out of the foster care system," said Jill Jacobs, Family Builders' executive director. "We will create safe and affirming foster families for LGBTQ youth. We will be providing foster care to permanency."

Family Builders is the only Bay Area adoption agency that specifically focuses on LGBT youth, said Jacobs. In addition, the 30-year-old agency has always welcomed LGBT people interested in being parents. Its supportive policy on gay adoptions, though, was a well-kept secret until it hired Jacobs in 1996.

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