'The F Word': A Queer Couple's Adventures in the Foster Care System

Kristan Cassady and Nicole Opper, a queer couple in Oakland, Calif., have turned the camera on themselves as they navigate the complications of seeking to adopt through the foster care system.

Their online docuseries, The F Word, provides an honest and sometimes humorous look at the challenges faced by first-time LGBTQ parents as well as perspectives from adult youth who were raised in the system. Cassady and Opper also explore the more unknown side of foster care: the fact that large amounts of money are spent to support foster and adoptive families, yet little money is spent to support the birth parents of kids in the system. Reunification of children with their birth parents is supposedly the goal of foster care, with more money spent to help foster parents than to support birth parents, is it really the goal?

Seasons 1 and 2 are available to watch on the SoulPancake YouTube Channel.

Watch season 2's episode 3, "The Major Flaw in the Foster Care System," below