The initiative comes as other states attempt to limit the ways that LGBTQ couples can adopt.
Speaking to the Associated Press, the state’s governor, Dannel P. Molloy said: “We just have to get this word out. We have to get more of our children placed with our families in our state.”
Currently, the state’s Department of Children and Families aims to have 250 LGBTQ families adopting by January. At the moment, there are only 100 LGBTQ adoptive families in the state.
In order to get more LGBTQ families involved, the Department plans to work with groups like the Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and other LGBTQ organisations to encourage people to sign up.
One adoptive father, John Pica-Sneeden praised the idea, saying that LGBTQ families are better able to relate to the children, as they may have faced being shunned by their parents when they too were children.
“They’re the ones that look at this child and say, ‘I will never throw you away.’ And that says everything to a child,” he said.
However, despite Connecticut taking a leading example, some states like Oklahoma and Kansas are going backwards in this regard. Last month, Senate Bill 1140 passed in Oklahoma, meaning that in November adoption agencies will be able to refuse LGBTQ couples from adopting if it goes against their religious beliefs.
The legislation was condemned, with GLAAD’s vice-president of programmes Zeke Stokes saying: “This bill is heartless and un-American.
“No qualified parent should be turned away from adoption or foster agencies simply because they are LGBTQ.”
Stokes continued, saying that the bill was an “attempt to write anti-LGBTQ discrimination into law at the expense of the state’s youth in need of loving and supportive homes.”
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