By Anthony Siegrist

My name is Anthony. I’m 16 and I live in Clearwater, Florida with my moms and three siblings. I was adopted by my parents when I was 13 years old after having spent four years in foster care.

I heard about the bill that the Florida legislature is now considering that would allow child placing agencies—including those who work with children in the foster care system—to refuse to place children with families if the agencies have religious objections to those families, regardless of the needs of the child.

This bill could have prevented me from having the family I have today had it been in effect when I needed a family.

I went into foster care when I was 8 years old because of my biological mother’s addiction to drugs. When her parental rights were terminated a few years later, there was no family available to adopt me. When I was 12, my case manager told me that there was a couple that wanted to adopt me. When she told me who it was, I couldn’t believe it!

Before I was in foster care, I had been friends with their son Peyton and used to go over to his house all the time. Things were not great in my own family, so Peyton’s moms let me hang out a lot at their house, and they became like a substitute family for me. Even though four years had passed since I had seen them, I remembered Peyton and his moms and how it always felt really good and safe to be at their house. It felt like home.

I later learned that the way my moms found out that I was in foster care and in need of a family was that they saw my picture on a website about kids in foster care who were waiting for families to adopt them. When they saw my picture, they said, “That’s our Anthony! We need to go get him!” It’s amazing to me that life brought me back full circle to this family I had loved as a young child.

Anthony and his family, shortly before his adoption.

Being adopted and becoming a permanent member of this family has been the greatest gift of my life. No family is perfect for all kids, but my family is the perfect family for me. I already had a connection with them—I didn’t have to go to a strange place with people I didn’t know and wouldn’t feel comfortable with. And they lived in the same area where I had been living while in foster care, so I was able to stay at my same school and keep my friends. And I really love my parents. They are amazing people. My moms are all about family. And they always look out for me. A lot of my life, I was around iffy people. Now I’m surrounded by great people all the time who just encourage me to do my best and change the world for the better.

I am so thankful that this proposed law didn’t exist when I was waiting for a family to adopt me. I could have been denied the parents that I was clearly meant to have.

Allowing agencies to put their own interests above the needs of the children in their care is so cruel that I can’t understand how my state’s leaders are even considering it. I hope that those voting on this bill will consider my story before they vote, and I beg of them not to do this to kids in foster care.

As we enter the second half of the Florida legislative session, several bills we warned you about continue to advance. Two in particular seem to be getting a lot of traction.

First, Florida is considering a 24 hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion.  The bills sponsored by Sen. Anitere Flores (R-Miami) and Rep. Jennifer Sullivan (R-Eustis) require a woman to make two trips to a facility at least 24 hours apart in order to give a woman time to “reflect” upon her decision to have an abortion. This bill imposes many hardships on women and is not medically necessary.

This week we saw members offer amendments that would make this law easier to comply with and mirror the majority of states that have less burdensome waiting requirements.  They were flatly rejected.  The bill supporters didn’t explain why Florida should be even stricter than most other states and erect even higher hurdles between women and their doctors.  But from the discussion at the hearing, it’s clear that some members just hope that women won’t come back to have the procedure. We’re anticipating seeing a full House vote on the bill soon.

Second, the bill which creates public records exemptions that would prevent the public from seeing many different types of law enforcement videos made it through all three committees of referral and is ready for the Senate floor.

Right now, Florida’s major civil rights organizations like Latino Justice, the National Congress of Black Women, the Dream Defenders and the NAACP all oppose this bill.  Of course, all of Florida’s law enforcement agencies have endorsed it.  That should tell you how well it balances privacy and the public’s right to know how police treat people. ACLU members across the state have contacted their Senators in opposition, yet the Senate persists.

There are four weeks of session left, and committees will still meet to prepare bills for the floor for the next two. We’re closely watching the anti-LGBT bills originating in the House.  It’s unclear what comes next for them – but don’t be surprised if the full House of Representatives schedules a vote on the bill permitting adoption agencies to discriminate against gays, or anyone else who violates their religious or moral beliefs. That bill sailed through committee Thursday morning and is subject to a floor vote at any time.

We’re up against tough odds in the legislature this session but we will continue to challenge these attacks on our civil liberties and laws that would legalize discrimination in Florida.