I support anti-discrimination protection for foster or adoptive parents based on sexual orientation, gender, race, color, national origin, and political or religious affiliation. Not all of these protections are currently afforded by the Virginia Department of Social Services.

The hot topic here is obviously sexual orientation. I urge policymakers to allow homosexual couples and individuals to become foster and adoptive parents. Research has shown they are equally as capable as heterosexual parents. (If your irrational fear is that homosexual parents raise homosexual children, research has shown that children of homosexual parents identify as homosexual at a similar rate as the general population. Besides, heterosexual parents don't raise only heterosexual children, do they?)

Please research the issue, a quick trip to http://scholar.google.com is a good place to start. Don't make this judgement based on rhetoric, persuasion, religious beliefs, or what you "feel" is right. Look into the facts and allow an equal opportunity for all hopeful parents, regardless of sexuality, to adopt and care for a child. Foster children and adopted child require a lot of attention and care, given the high chances they will experience negative outcomes in their life. Why should any child be denied the attention of an adult who wishes to be a stable, caring force in that child's life?

If nothing else, please listen to this testimony of the son of a gay couple who sums it up much better than I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSQQK2Vuf9Q