I’ve met a lot of adoptive families at church. They come in all stripes, and that’s a good thing.

If there were no children in Virginia awaiting loving homes, or if there were more potential adoptive families than children to be adopted, then allowing state adoption agencies to use ideological restrictions would still be wrong but might have merit. Since that is not the case, the categorical restriction of potential adoptive parents based on anything other than the best interest of the individual child is unmerited and hurtful to a society which has taken collective responsibility for our needy children.

Whatever “ideal family” you hold up as a model, the reality is that a host of children in Virginia are being raised by a single parent, grandparents, and yes, same-sex couples too. When children are in need and gay people or disabled people or anyone else is willing to adopt them, it is cruel to pretend that the children are better off without a stable family, even if it doesn’t look like your “ideal.” I strongly support adoption of the rules that would prohibit state-licensed child placing agencies from discriminating based on based on race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, disability and family status in providing services to children and prospective foster care and adoptive parents.