LGBTQ+ foster youths could expect different experiences as Tennessee and Colorado pass opposing laws

DENVER (AP) — LGBTQ+ children in foster care in Tennessee and Colorado could have vastly different experiences in where they are placed under opposing legislation advanced by state legislatures this week.

In Tennessee, the Republican supermajority passed a measure that would allow LGBTQ+ children to be placed with families that hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. Meanwhile, Colorado’s Democratic majority passed a bill that would install protections for children in such placements.

With a Republican in Tennessee’s governor’s mansion and a Democrat in Colorado’s, both bills are expected to be signed into law in the coming days or weeks. States including South Carolina and West Virginia have bills in line with Tennessee’s amid a national tug of war as red and blue states debate bills targeting and protecting LGBTQ+ rights.

Colorado’s proposal establishes a bill of rights for foster children, most contentiously requiring that foster parents follow an LGBTQ+ child’s preferred name, pronouns and gender expression, such as the clothes they choose. The rules are already established in statute as guidelines, but the bill would allow for accountability and actively inform foster youths of their rights.

Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, one of the bill’s sponsors, gave an impassioned defense during final debate Thursday, noting that she had foster siblings and a transgender child.

“If something were to happen to me, and my child ended up in foster care, I absolutely, 1,000% would not want the caregivers… to start calling my child Sophia. Because my child’s name is Soren,” Zenzinger said, staring out over the floor. “Just because their parent can no longer take care of them, and they are temporarily separated from their parents, does not mean that they