The proposed nondiscrimination rules do not violate any organization's or person's religious freedom.  They would require those seeking the state's authority to facilitate adoptions on its behalf to agree to abide by rules that ensure no person using their services is subjected to discrimination.

 

Those whose comments advocate allowing continued state sanctioned discrimination by so-called "private" adoption agencies miss an important point: child placing agencies licensed by the state are not engaging in private acts.

 

No adoption is "private." Every adoption or foster care placement is a public act approved and sanctioned by the state.

Licensed child-placing agencies are acting as agents of the state in facilitating adoptions and foster care placements. Thus, as agents of the state, they should not be able to do anything the state cannot do.

Even the commenters supporting discrimination cloaked as “religious freedom” would likely acknowledge that the state cannot and should not discriminate based on religion or gender or sexual orientation; why, then, does they defend the right of the state's agents to do so?

Licensed child-placing agencies are not like private clubs or churches that are free, as truly private entities, to decide who can be members or what religious rites to perform and for whom.

These child-placing agencies are more like food banks, hospitals, colleges and other service providers that, although run by tax-exempt, private not-for-profit organizations, are providing a public accommodation or service. As such, they must be open to everyone on a nondiscriminatory basis.

The proposed nondiscrimination rules would not, in fact, "force" any religious organization or other private organization to act against its beliefs as some commenters assert. The regulations would require those organizations that choose to become agents of the state and provide licensed child-placing services to conduct their operations and provide those services without discriminating against either the children who are the prospective adoptees or foster children or the individuals or married couples seeking to provide them with loving homes.

Those agencies that do not believe that they can in good conscience offer services without discrimination (based on gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, family status, political beliefs or disability) may avoid being "forced" to do anything by simply choosing not to continue to be a licensed agent of the state.

This is not an issue of religious rights or lgbt rights, but the rights of children in Virginia. Decisions whether to recommend the placement of individual children in individual homes should be made based on the best interests of the child as determined from an individualized evaluation of the needs of the child and the ability of a prospective parent(s) to meet them.

These decisions should not be based on the political or religious views of any state-licensed child placement agency.

Right now, 6,000 children in our state are in foster care. We have the second lowest rate of public adoptions of any state.  We have more children aging out in foster care than any other state. These children have a right to a loving home with prospective parents who should be screened solely on their qualifications as a parent, their capacity to care for the child and their commitment to provide a loving and stable home.