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Less than a month before the 2024 presidential election, President Joe Biden\u2019s administration brought together transgender activists, government officials, and major progressive philanthropists in what organizers dubbed a \u201cspeed dating\u201d event.<\/p>\n
The event, called \u201cOur Family Values: Building the Evidence Base for Child Well-Being,\u201d took place just three weeks before Americans would vote to send Donald Trump back to the White House following a campaign that revolved largely around radical gender ideology. But even as the election seemed to break against them, the Biden White House was working to match leaders of \u201cfamily acceptance\u201d child welfare programs with major funders of the LGBTQ movement, records show.<\/p>\n
Biden officials viewed \u201cfamily acceptance\u201d of so-called gender identity as an important<\/a> step in \u201cpreventing\u201d LGBTQI+ children from entering foster care and wanted to further the impact of radical child welfare programs. The goal of the speed dating event was to expand child welfare programs that re-educate non-affirming parents to accept their child\u2019s \u201cLGBTQI+\u201d identity, records<\/a> show<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that family support around LGBTQI+ identity, as early as possible, is a key protective factor against \u2026 entry into the child welfare and juvenile justice systems for LGBTQI+ youth,\u201d Julie Kruse, a contracted senior advisor for the LGBTQI+ Initiatives, wrote in an email<\/a>\u00a0describing the event. \u201cThese programs are critical to preventing LGBTQI+ youth homelessness and entry into foster care.\u201d<\/p>\n Angela Weeks, director of the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Center,<\/a> was instrumental in setting up the event.\u00a0On October 13, she sent an email to participants explaining how the \u201cPartnership Speed Matching\u201d would work.<\/p>\n \u201cYou will rotate between tables of philanthropic organizations and ACF leadership. They will be instructed to ask you and question they have of you during the 8-min discussion. When each rotation only has two minutes left, Marlene will give the 2-minute warning, which is the cue for you all to start discussing next steps\/collaboration,\u201d Weeks wrote in the email<\/a>. \u201cTry not to leave the table without a next step and a contact person. It will be the purveyor\u2019s responsibility to follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n At least 14 donors were invited to participate in the speed dating event, along with government officials who came from the Administration for Children and Families, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, records show.<\/p>\n After the event, Kruse sent several follow-up emails<\/a> indicating<\/a> the meeting was successful and that donors were interested in funding the family acceptance programs.<\/p>\n \u201cOur great hope is that you made connections and identified resources at this event that will help you take actions to increase the availability of LGBTQI+ family support services, so that children can stay safely in their homes with families of origin and kin, preventing LGBTQI+ youth homelessness and entry into foster care,\u201d wrote Kruse.<\/p>\n Some transgender activists believe refusing to affirm a child\u2019s gender confusion is a form of child abuse. During a webinar hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services in the fall of 2023, one activist called \u201ctransphobia\u201d child abuse<\/a> and suggested families should be prosecuted as abusers for refusing to call their gender confused child the opposite sex.<\/p>\n \u201cBiden promised to enforce LGBTQ ideology throughout government systems in his 2020 campaign platform, and no administration has done more damage to child welfare systems,\u201d Laura Hanford, senior policy analyst at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing, told The Daily Wire. \u201cHe funneled millions of dollars to toxic ideological training programs promoting the lie that raising a gender-confused child as his or her sex is abusive, and forcing parents to \u2018transition\u2019 their gender-confused children or lose them to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n The organizers of the invitation-only October 16 event hoped to elevate \u201cfamily acceptance programs\u201d to the scientific standards of the Prevention Services Clearinghouse<\/a>, a federal database of social services programming used by child welfare agencies across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cOctober 16 will focus on building the evidence base (e.g., research, analysis, evaluation) for family support programs that would make them eligible for the Family First Prevention Services, a significant source of federal funds for prevention programs that meet a certain evidence threshold,\u201d Kruse wrote.<\/p>\n The Family First Prevention Services Act,<\/a> which became law in February 2018, diverted federal funds from supporting children in foster care to programs aimed at preventing children<\/a> from entering state systems. The Prevention Services Clearinghouse<\/a> was established in accordance with the law to provide a systematic process to rate and review<\/a> the quality of evidence supporting prevention programs. The database lists available programming with a rating of\u00a0 \u201cwell-supported, supported, promising, or does not currently meet criteria,\u201d according to its website<\/a>.\u00a0States can receive federal reimbursement <\/a>for using programs approved by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea was that [the Clearinghouse] was going to give states a list of evidence-based programs that they could choose from and that they would be eligible to receive federal reimbursement if they used those programs,\u201d Naomi Schaefer Riley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Wire. \u201cIf they passed, if they got the Clearinghouse stamp of approval, then states could kind of pick these programs off of a kind of shelf and say, \u2018We\u2019re going to use this one and we\u2019ll get federal reimbursement for it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cspeed dating\u201d event was co-sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, the Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Child Welfare League of America, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Center, the Trevor Project, and Think of Us, records show.<\/p>\n Kruse personally invited Funders for LGBTQ Issues, a philanthropic organization that envisions a \u201cworld where all queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people are liberated, loved, valued, respected, and thriving,\u201d to attend the meeting. The group gives approximately $200 million annually to LGBTQ issues, according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n A representative from the organization wrote it was unable to attend the October 2024 meeting but hoped they could \u201cremain in touch to identify future ways we can partner together to advance our shared goals,\u201d emails show. In response, Kruse set up a personal meeting between the Funders for LGBTQ Issues, the Administration for Children and Families, and Weeks.<\/p>\n The Funders for LGBTQ Issues did not respond to The Daily Wire\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n The National SOGIE Center is home to a group of activists working to transform social services nationwide through gender affirming programs, many of which are available on its website<\/a>. Members of the group worked hand in hand<\/a> with the Biden administration to inform its September 2023 regulation<\/a> requiring foster care families to affirm<\/a> a child\u2019s gender confusion.<\/p>\n Weeks had a working relationship with Kruse that was critical in organizing the \u201cOur Family Values\u201d event, records reveal.<\/p>\n In July 2024, Kruse emailed<\/a> Weeks and officials from the Administration for Children and Families, HHS, and NIH, to lay the groundwork for the event. The pair stayed in regular communication through November 2024, records show.<\/p>\n The \u201cOur Family Values\u201d event was focused on three programs: Chosen Affirming Finding Family, Youth Acceptance Project, and AFFIRM Caregiver programs, which are all affiliated with the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Center.<\/p>\n The Chosen Affirming Finding Family program<\/a> helps \u201cLGBTQ+ young people\u201d identify \u201cchosen family\u201d who can provide them support and \u201cworks with those people to help them understand the young person\u2019s LGBTQ+ identity and the best ways to affirm and support them with their identity and transition into adulthood,\u201d according to a SOGIE Center document<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Youth Acceptance Project<\/a> is a program that re-educates parents of children who are \u201cat risk\u201d of entering the child welfare system due to \u201cfamily stress\u201d surrounding the child\u2019s gender identity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe YAP social workers\/clinicians provide a trauma-informed, psycho-educational model while partnering with parents\/caregivers; supporting them to process misinformation, resistance, fear, and grief that families often struggle with when they learn that their child is LGBTQ+,\u201d a National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Center document<\/a>\u00a0reads. \u201cThe Youth Acceptance Project is designed to work both with families of children already in, or at risk of entering, the child welfare system due to family stress resulting from their child\u2019s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, the Affirm Caregiver program<\/a> is an educational intervention that enhances \u201caffirmative parenting practices that promote the safety and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth,\u201d according to a National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Center document<\/a>.<\/p>\n Parents across the country<\/a> have had their children taken away by child welfare<\/a> services<\/a> for affirming their child\u2019s sex.<\/p>\n President Trump called for federal action to protect the rights of parents to affirm the true sex of a gender confused child in his recent State of the Union address.<\/p>\n \u201cSurely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents\u2019 arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents\u2019 will,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWho would believe that we\u2019re even talking about it? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration is taking action to stop the spread of child welfare family acceptance programs.<\/p>\n The Clearinghouse website<\/a> notes that the AFFIRM Youth<\/a>, a sister program of AFFIRM Caregiver<\/a>, was \u201cremoved from the working list of programs and services planned for systematic review,\u201d in accordance with Executive Order 14151.<\/p>\n The Administration for Children and Families at HHS has also alerted all 50 states that affirming \u201cbiological reality\u201d does not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal laws. It has also encouraged states to clearly define the terms \u201cabuse\u201d and \u201cneglect,\u201d saying these definitions should clarify that affirming a child\u2019s sex and \u201crefusing to condone sex-rejecting interventions\u201d does not constitute abuse.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has since \u201crescinded a Biden-era rule that required prospective foster families to affirm support for a child\u2019s gender transition or sexual orientation in order to receive federal funding,\u201d Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily G. Hilliard told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n \u201cThis requirement discouraged many faith-based families from participating in foster care at a time when the nation is experiencing a record year-over-year decline in foster families. By removing this barrier, ACF is expanding the pool of qualified caregivers and reinforcing its commitment to biological reality, parental rights, and equal access to the foster care system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe child welfare actions of the Trump and Biden administrations are diametrically opposed,\u201d Hanford told The Daily Wire. \u201cBiden\u2019s programs embedded toxic gender ideology in child welfare systems, leading to gender-confused children being ripped from parents who simply affirmed the reality of their sex. Trump, in contrast, is taking major steps to protect such families from being ripped apart.\u201d<\/p>\n The Daily Wire reached out to the organizations named in public records as possible attendees of the October 16, 2024, event.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Arnold Ventures confirmed it does not fund the family acceptance programs seeking funding at the October 16, 2024, event.<\/p>\n The Annie E. Casey Foundation told The Daily Wire, \u201cDue to our longstanding expertise in child welfare, over the years the Foundation has frequently been invited by the administrations of both parties to events on topics related to foster care and family well-being. As part of that ongoing engagement, a Foundation representative attended the signing of President Trump\u2019s \u2018Fostering the Future\u2019 executive order in November 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n A representative from Blue Meridian Partners told The Daily Wire the invited representative did not attend the event and that it has not considered for funding or funded the organizations or programs discussed at the \u201cOur Family Values\u201d event.<\/p>\n The Daily Wire requested a comment from the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Child Welfare League of America, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression Center, the Trevor Project, Think of Us, Angela Weeks, Julie Kruse, Family Builders (YAP program), Kinnect (CAFF program) and Affirmative Research for comment but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n