Our guest blogger is Crosby Burns, special assistant for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at American Progress.

Today, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced federal legislation that would bar discrimination against prospective LGBT adoptive or foster parents. The “Every Child Deserves a Family Act” prohibits any organization that receives federal assistance and is involved in adoption or foster care placements from discriminating against prospective adoptive or foster parents on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) introduced the same bill in the House earlier this year, which currently has 76 co-sponsors.

LGBT couples looking to adopt currently face discrimination in more than 30 states, and if passed, Gilibrand’s bill would ensure that no child is left without a home because their adoption agency or foster care provider discriminated against prospective LGBT caretakers. There are currently approximately 400,000 children in the US foster system, with an additional 107,000 children nationwide waiting to be adopted.

This bill comes the same week that a broad coalition of LGBT and social welfare organizations released a comprehensive report, All Children Matter, that documents the ways in which state and federal laws hurt the more than 2 million children living with LGBT parents. For example, the report identified state and federal adoption policies that prevent children from leaving the adoptive and foster care system and entering into loving homes headed by LGBT couples. These policies have disastrous implications for our nation’s children, putting them at a higher risk for poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and early parenthood.

The report also offers numerous policy recommendations – such removing restrictions to LGBT adoption – to ensure that all children have the financial and emotional support needed to develop happily and healthily. Studies have consistently found that LGBT parents are just as fit and effective as straight parents, and their children are just as well-adjusted and physically and psychologically developed.

Bishop William Lori of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee on Oct. 26 about the “grave threats to religious liberty that have emerged even since June.” Lori specifically singled out the administration’s refusal to defend the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and state efforts to expand marriage equality to gays and lesbians:

The federal Department of Justice (DoJ) has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by mischaracterizing it as an act of bigotry….If the label of “bigot” sticks to our Church and many other churches—especially in court, under the Constitution—because of their teaching on marriage, the result will be church-state conflicts for many years to come. [...]

At the state level, religious liberty protections associated with the redefinition of marriage have fallen far short of what is necessary. In New York, county clerks face legal action for refusing to participate in same-sex unions, and gay rights advocates boast how little religious freedom protection individuals and groups will enjoy under the new law. In Illinois, Catholic Charities has been driven out of the adoption and foster care business, because it recognizes the unique value of man-woman marriage for the well-being of children. [...]

We also applaud the decision of the House to take up the defense of DOMA in court after DoJ abandoned it, and we urge you to sustain that effort for as long as necessary to obtain definitive confirmation of its constitutionality.

The Catholic Church has led the opposition to same-sex marriage across the country (including fights in California, Maine, New York, and now Minnesota), despite limited support from American Catholics. A recent poll found that just 35 percent of Catholics oppose same-sex marriage and only 16 percent of Catholics say church leaders have “the final say” on homosexuality, down from 32 percent over the past 25 years.

Standing Up for New Hampshire Families — a coalition of New Hampshire residents and business leaders — held a press conference today urging state lawmakers to abandon efforts to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law and focus on jobs. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve a measure that would eliminate the law and enact civil unions. The full House is expected to take-up the issue in January.

Watch it:

The two separate bills would preserve existing same-sex marriages but replace the law with civil unions for unmarried adults, including relatives. Anyone would be able to discriminate against such couples “in employment, housing and public accommodations based on religious or moral beliefs.” A WMUR Granite State Poll from Oct. 14 found that voters want to keep marriage equality by a two to one margin.

Rosie O’Donnell appeared on MSNBC with Thomas Roberts this afternoon to discuss her new talk show on OWN and how changes in the media may be contributing to the bullying of LGBT youth. Speaking of her now infamous feud with Donald Trump, O’Donnell said she was “pretty shocked on how many stations he was allowed to go on and sort of debase my character, my physical appearance, my femininity, every single thing about me…he was bullying for like seven months,” she said, adding that “some of the 24-hour news networks seemed to take pride in the fact that they bully people.”

“When I was on T.V. …nobody was asking you if you were gay or not. You know, nobody ever asked me in the entire run of my show if I was gay, because it wasn’t part of the social zeitgeist, it wasn’t part of pop culture,” O’Donnell observed. “But then, after I was on a few years, Will and Grace went on the air and that changed everything. And then Ellen came out. You know, it changed. So you have to think that in the 15 years so many things have changed and some parts of the country have not really caught up.” Watch it:

Earlier this month, an audio recording captured an election volunteer for Virginia state Sen. Janet Howell — a Democratic incumbent running for re-election to the state Senate — admitting to “gay-baiting” Republican voters into opposing her openly gay Republican challenger Patrick Forrest. Kavita Imarti, an intoxicated volunteer for Howell, can be heard admitting to Forrest’s field director that the campaign is informing conservative voters of Forrest’s sexuality and claiming that he will push a “homosexual agenda” in schools. “We’re showing your party [is]… prejudiced against someone because of their sexuality,” Imarti shouts on the recording.

Yesterday, reporters asked Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) about the incident during a campaign fundraiser for Forrest. McDonnell responded that Republicans “stand for equal opportunities for all people” and insisted that supporting a gay candidate would not hurt his standing among the party’s more conservative social base:

“I don’t know what she’s doing but I can only say that Patrick and I — and I think all of us in our party — stand for equal opportunities for all people. I think you heard his message about job creation. He’s not focused on divisive social issues. He’s focused on the two things that really matter, getting people back to work and getting our spending and our government under control, and I think that’s what people care about, especially independent voters right now.”

But McDonnell’s own record on issues of “equal rights” is mixed at best. While McDonnell did eventually issue an executive directive prohibiting discrimination “based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation” in state employment, he doesn’t support extending workplace protections to gays and lesbians in the private sector, arguing that “there isn’t really any rampant discrimination on any basis in Virginia.” He also opposes marriage equality and gay and lesbian couples adopting children.

Mega church leader Joel Osteen reiterated his belief that being gay is a “sin” during an interview with the Washington Post’s Sally Quinn, but said that gay people should still purchase his new book “Everyday a Friday” and learn from its message of empowerment. “They don’t have to let people steal their power, especially all the bullying, things that we see going on with that,” he said. Osteen also suggested gays could be converted:

Somebody that maybe had this certain difficulty now, maybe in five years they’re not if we will love them. You know, I think one of the messages I speak on sometimes is, you know, we can love people back into wholeness. But sometimes we want to beat them down — you got this addiction and you shouldn’t have that, or you did this — I just don’t think that’s the best way.

Watch it:

Osteen said that he would attend a same-sex marriage but wouldn’t officiate it, before adding, “we’re all growing, we’re all changing.” “Somebody who has a certain difficulty now, maybe they won’t in five years. You know, one of the messages I speak to is, you can love people into wholeness.”