To the Board of Social Services,

The Virginia foster care system holds over 1,000 children eligible for adoption, yet the Board denies adoption petitions by qualified families for reasons such as homosexuality. Statistically and historically, fewer willing and qualified families seek to adopt from the foster care system than from other avenues.  If the Board’s first priority is to ensure the welfare and health of children through placement in stable homes, then discriminating against certain waiting families is counter-intuitive and hypocritical.

Does the Board intend to teach Virginia's children, by example, to discriminate? Does the Board intend to teach Virginia's children that some of them do not deserve forever homes?

As an adoptive mother of two and a registered Virginia voter, I hope the Board will reconsider its decision to remove anti-discriminatory protections from its foster-to-adopt regulations.

Sincerely,

Michelle Brown