The primary function of any family service agency is to protect the welfare of children. Finding good foster and adoptive parents is hard enough without limiting the pool of loving parents by membership in any group or class of person when that group is based on race, religion, sexual orientation or any of the other factors this change addresses.

Loving parents come in all types, and loving families are made up of adults who care for children and children who feel safe and loved. Ward and June Cleaver are not the only pattern for success. Please enact this change for the good of all of Virginia's children.