(Los Angeles, California) Two dads and their adoptive son smile out from a billboard with the headline “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Family” in West Hollywood. It’s part of an innovative ad campaign to encourage gay couples in Los Angeles County to adopt.

The billboard and other ads are cosponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the California Department of Social Services, and Los Angeles County Adoption Services. The billboard ad will be displayed for 24 weeks. 

Currently there are more than 120,000 children seeking adoptive parents in the United States – many of them in LA County, the second largest metropolitan area in the nation. Throughout California 75,000 children are in foster care.

“This awareness campaign helps make the dreams of thousands of children come true by raising the visibility of LGBT-adoptive families and encouraging prospective parents to learn more about the children waiting in foster care,” said Ellen Kahn, Family Project Director for Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 

“[W]e need to ensure that the LGBT community knows about the opportunity to adopt and to connect them with agencies that truly welcome and support who they are as people.”

This is the first time that the California Department of Social Services has supported effects specifically targeting the LGBT community.

“California’s number one priority is to find stable homes for California’s children in foster care,” said California Department of Social Services director John Wagner.  

“California is home to more than 75,000 children in foster care and gay and lesbian adults can provide loving and permanent homes for these youths.”

Some agencies close the door to qualified families through their practices.  Few recruit LGBT adoptive & foster parents, and many LGBT people feel unwelcome or discouraged HRC said in a media statement.

As a result members of the LGBT community may not be aware of the opportunities in domestic adoption and foster care, or they may not know of agencies that welcome their families. 

A similar campaign is being launched in Alameda County.