In the
three years since the Supreme Court
legalized sane-sex marriage nationwide, anti-LGBT groups have been desperately
looking for state-level victories wherever they can get them. Three
states—Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado—will soon weigh anti-LGBT legislation that
would allow religiously-affiliated child placement agencies to turn away
same-sex couples looking to adopt or foster a child under the guise of
“religious freedom”.
Colorado’s
bill is called the “Colorado Children First Act”—but LGBT advocates are quick
to point out that such prospective laws actually place children second to a
debate that has nothing to do the with the quality of parenting they would
receive.
“What makes
this flavor of anti-LGBT bill especially pernicious is that the people who bear
the brunt of such laws are the children in the state foster care system who
lose out on families that they desperately need,” said American Civil Liberties
Union attorney Leslie Cooper. Over 100,000 children in the country are waiting
to be placed with adoptive and foster families.
Not only do
these bills target children, the represent a sort of last resort for anti-LGBT
lawmakers and groups, who have so far failed to pass ant abut-LGBT state laws
in 2018. If any of these bills passes it would become the first anti-LGBT bill
to become law in 2018. This year has mostly seen a string of state-level
defeats for anti-LGBT lawmakers and groups.
“Now, all
eyes are on the remaining states where there are bills targeting LGBTQ people
and particularly targeting children who will be harmed by not having those
parents in the pool of potential parents in the system, “said Cathy Oakley,
state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign. “These bills are part
of a broader effort by opponents of LGBT equality, both in state legislatures
and the courts, to use religious freedom arguments to establish a right to
discriminate against LGBTQ people.”
There is no
explicit language that talks about transgender people but for each of these
bills, what they’re saying is an agency doesn’t need to work with anyone with
whom they have a religious objection, anyone who doesn’t meet their religious
test.
There are
already substantial obstacles standing in the way of LGBT people who want to
foster or adopt a child. Lambda Legal notes that only six states have explicit
protections for prospective transgender foster and adoptive parents, which
means that most transgender people are vulnerable to extra scrutiny or denial
simply for being transgender. Only a handful of additional states like Oregon
and New York have protections based on sexual orientation alone. Seven states—Texas,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, Michigan, Alabama, and Mississippi—have already
carved out anti-LGBT religious exemptions for child placement agencies.
