And everyone wonders why the Foster Care and Adoption system are totally rife with abusers, grifters and pederasts, jfc
It certainly is rife with abuse, however, it's gotten better and stricter over the years, even in areas where cities are desperate for anyone to foster a kid or two. To give you some peace of mind, when my friend applied to be a foster parent, we both learned how strict and difficult it is. You have to give references, but they won't accept just anyone, it has to be friends and coworkers you've known for years, and they do call your references and really grill you for about 30 minutes about your relationship with the foster parent and why you feel they should be a foster parent. They also take your finger prints, check your criminal history, and as I said earlier, they google you.
They googled my friend (who is Christian saint who never cusses or does anything remotely bad) and found her old facebook. She didn't have anything bad on it, but she did have an old picture where she was holding an alcoholic drink on her 21st birthday. They inquired about her drinking habits and etc.
And that's just the background check. Once you pass that hurdle (which takes a while), the agency then visits your home and has to approve of it. After you get over that hurdle, you still aren't through, they give you multiple interviews and you have to have a very concrete plan of how you plan to foster a child. You can't just say "I'm a loving woman who will give a child a loving home", you have to provide a detailed plan.
Even after all of that is done, it's still not over. You see, if you went to that website I provided, you'll notice that the site never lists the child's behavioral problems or why they are in the foster care system in the first place. They are not allowed to give out this information until after you have expressed interest in fostering the child and have passed all the above checks. Then they will give you a folder that explains all the child's issues, and let me tell you, most of these kids are traumatized and very difficult to handle. The website will give hints to this ("Brent would do well with a foster parent that is very patient and understanding" or "Abby needs a foster family that does not have any males in the home") but they never tell you outright what the child went through.
Kids in foster care only end up there if they were horrifically abused or neglected. Your chances of finding a mentally, physically, and emotionally stable kid is practically zero. You can be ready to adopt a kid and then find out that the kid you want has severe anger problems that will threaten to stab you if you don't give them what they want. Or in my friend's case, she was ready to adopt a seemingly lovely girl, but then she read her folder. This kid had killed the last foster parent's pet, and would lie about being abused when she didn't get what she wanted.
Finally, even if you manage to pass all the checks and find a child you want, it doesn't mean the child will want you, or that the agency thinks you will be a good fit. If the kid is old enough and doesn't like you, you aren't getting them. And if the agency doesn't like you, you aren't getting a kid either. And good luck proving that it is due to transphobia; all they have to say is they found a parent that was a better fit with the child.
Point is, the chances of Erin passing the first round of checks is low, but even if he does, he won't go through with it once he learns every child requires way too much work to for Twitter asspats.
Hmm, I just realized Erin's thread isn't the first result on Google. We should really change that to help ensure any adoption agency doing a background check can find him easily. SEO kiwis, what do we need to do to get this thread higher?