With regard to the newly proposed Virginia Administrative Code section 22 VAC 40-131-170, which provides that—

"[Private adoption agencies] shall prohibit acts of discrimination based on . . . sexual orientation, disability or family status to:

1. Delay or deny a child's placement; or
2. Deny an individual the opportunity to apply to become a foster or adoptive parent."

Please don't hurt needy children by driving religious foster care and adoption agencies out of business. If an agency provides good parents for children, they should be embraced, not rejected by the state of Virginia.

The message of exclusion you will send to children with strong religious identities, as well as to potential foster and adoptive parents is unconscionable and destructive.

The state of Virginia Social Services has no right to impose this strange new morality on other people, to the detriment of the neediest children in our state.

Thank you for your consideration.

Charles A. Hake