To the Editor:

Re “Trump’s Latest Victims” (Op-Ed, Aug. 8):

Thank you, Jennifer Finney Boylan, for kick-starting an urgently needed conversation about the Trump administration’s harmful actions toward foster children.

The religious right has been fighting to erode marriage equality since it became legal nationwide, and has gained some traction by attacking L.G.B.T.Q. families’ ability to foster and adopt. Ten states have passed foster care and adoption laws that allow child welfare agencies and workers to discriminate based on religious beliefs against L.G.B.T.Q., religious minority and single parents. Now the Trump administration is reportedly planning to roll out such a policy nationwide, depriving many of America’s 4 40,000 foster children of safe and loving homes.

Denying foster children qualified, loving parents simply because they do not meet a religious litmus test turns the cardinal rule of child welfare on its head — that all decisions must be made in the best interest of the child.

Culture wars must not be fought on the backs of America’s most vulnerable children.

(Rev.) Stan J. Sloan

Jersey City

The writer, an Episcopal priest, is chief executive of Family Equality, which supports L.G.B.T.Q. parents and their children.

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