Foster Agencies To Reject Gay Parents in Oklahoma
Politicians in the state of Oklahoma passed a bill that allows adoption and foster agencies to reject gay couples based on their religious beliefs.
Two days ago (April 26), the Oklahoma House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 1140, which had already passed in the Oklahoma state Senate on March 13.
The bill makes it so that “no private childplacing agency receiving neither federal nor state funds shall be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.”
If Oklahoma’s Republican Governor, Mary Fallin, signs the bill into law, the law will go into affect on November 1 of this year.
Oklahoma is now joining eight other states, Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia, that have similar religious freedom laws when it comes to adoption and fostering.
That said, many are openly protesting the bill for its clear discrimination and its betrayal of children who need homes and caring parents.
More: Louisiana Republicans Are Fighting An Anti-Bestiality Bill To Stop Gay Sex
According to PinkNews, Zeke Stokes, the Vice President of GLAAD, criticized Bill 1140.
“This bill is heartless and un-American.
“No qualified parent should be turned away from adoption or foster agencies simply because they are LGBTQ.”
Stokes also added that this bill is an “attempt to write anti-LGBTQ discrimination into law at the expense of the state’s youth in need of loving and supportive homes.”
Reports say that on any given day, there are at least 428,000 children in foster care in the United States of America. In addition, reports have found that six percent of children remain in foster care for five or more years.
Why are religious groups preventing able bodies and homes from providing and caring for these children in need? Because, it doesn’t go with their principles.
There sure are some loving, and smart, Christians out there.
