I have to say that as a young woman who wishes to live a life outside of the American 'ideal' of 2.5 kids and a white picket fence, I do not have much interest in children. But I know in the future I might, and therefore I find it prudent to protect my rights now. We are a country founded on the belief that freedom to live and work in a productive manner and freedom from unjust judgement and persecution are basic human rights. The laws as they stand, without added amendments to account for discrimination, are excellent examples of how we are not abiding these laws our forefathers set down in the Constitution. 

Yes, we have not abided by this idea of equality in the past; we have owned slaves and imprisoned the innocent. We have been cruel and we have been unusual, but we are working to this day to make up for our past mistakes and still learning from them. I urge and encourage that this bill be passed so that all persons may have one of the simplest of life's joys: having a child. If we as humans deny another man or woman, someone who bleeds the same blood and breaths the same air, how can we say that we are Americans? How can we say that we believe in freedom, equality, and justice if we refuse to allow a child into a loving home? We can't, and it is wrong to say otherwise. 

As far as the right to religious freedom, I am not saying that organizations affiliated with certain religions should not be allowed. I believe that there are many good people who genuinely care about the children they work with and seek to find them a home that will raise them according to the beliefs they hold sacred, and I can applaud and admire that. However, I do not think that these groups should receive state funding, as a major tenent of our government is the separation of the church and the state. We are not a country of one belief, but a country of many, and that is one of the things that is so appealing about the American way of life. To try and create one central belief, or one central idea based on a religious belief, would completely discount everything that the last two hundred-odd years has been progressing towards, and as an American, I find that offensive, unrealistic, and immoral.