I have been following the newspaper reports about the pending changes to the state's child placement regulations.  I strongly urge you to make the welfare of each individual child the sole criteria for placement.  Discrimination of any sort should not be a factor in making those decisions, and that includes the sexual orientation of the child, the prospective foster parent(s), or potential adoptive parent(s).  Please restore the protections against discrimination that were in the earlier regulations.   There are far too many instances of this commonwealth taking stances that set us up for national and international ridicule.  Do not make this one of those instances.