A Belfast foster dad is breaking down the barriers surrounding LGBT fostering.
This Pride month, Clinton Kirkpatrick is calling for more members of the LGBTQ+ community to consider fostering a child in need of a home.
The 37-year-old artist began his fostering journey in May 2021 and has been looking after his young person for the past seven months. Lockdown was the catalyst he needed to take the plunge into foster care.
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“I realised that I wanted to introduce family to my life, but am acutely aware that I am not getting any younger, so I needed to look for other ways to do it," Clinton said.
“A friend of mine suggested fostering, I enquired with Foster Care Associates (FCA), and five months later I had my first foster child.”
It was only in 2002 that the Adoption and Children Act was amended to include gay foster parents and adopters, and this didn’t come into practice until 2005. In Northern Ireland the initial legislation was proposed in 2013, challenged and then appealed in the UK Supreme court until it was passed in December 2017.
There is still a common misconception that you have to be a certain type of person to be able to foster. Single, gay men are most likely to think that they are not eligible to foster.
Clinton said: “I feel very privileged to be in this position. Even just a few years ago I wouldn’t have thought it possible. But I am delighted that I can call myself a foster parent, and delighted that I can look after someone else.
"There is a need for young people to be looked after and supported, so a fostering myth that should be busted wide open is that any one can do it. If you are single, gay, or anything. Lots of people are equipped to do it.
"As a gay man, a single man, and a single, male, gay foster parent, I am dealing with this legacy of all these tropes of life, but fortunately there is a rise in conversation around this now.”
Clinton's foster child is 13, and he describes their dynamic as "funny and humorous" and said they get on very well together.
He said: “Foster care is not without its challenges, but there are so many little moments that make it amazing.
"Watching my young person grow, make their own decisions, have new life experiences. I took him to the Grand Opera House in Belfast and it was amazing to introduce him to something new like the theatre.”
Clinton is enjoying his role as a foster parent, and hopes to provide long-term care for his foster child, but said there needs to be more information available for prospective foster parents.
If you’re yet to contact an agency for more information, it can be difficult to find out what you need to know. So to help prospective foster parents, Clinton has decided to write a book about his fostering experience.
In its very early stages, the book will aim to tackle the big questions around fostering head on, with a first hand account from Clinton.
He said: “I started to document what I was going through through experiences, words and art, and then I thought ‘I’m going to write a book!’
“Ultimately, it’s about encouraging other people to become foster parents. I love that I do this, and that I was able to make the choice to do this, so the bottom line is I hope that more people come forward to foster children throughout Northern Ireland.”
Foster Care Associates is based in Northern Ireland and provides support to children around the country. For more information on becoming a foster parent you can visit https://www.thefca.co.uk/regions/northern-ireland/
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