The Oklahoma Senate passed a bill this week similar to one that passed in Texas last session that allows religious organizations discriminate in foster care and adoption services. The legislation passed 35-9.
The sponsor of the bill claimed it would increase adoptions in the state by ending religious discrimination in the foster system and in adoptions, according to Tulsa World.
The bill:
“To the extent allowed by federal law, no private child placing agency 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.”
Despite a severe shortage of foster and adoptive parents in the state and more than 17,000 children needing homes, agencies wouldn’t have to consider LGBT or other prospective parents if the prospective parent’s sexual orientation goes against that agency’s beliefs.
“We will continue to fight SB 1140 in the House, we will fight it in the court of public opinion, and we will fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, if we have to,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma. “Discrimination is not the Oklahoma Standard, and we will not let it become so.”
“Bills such as SB 1140 are a clear attempt to solve a ‘problem’ that simply doesn’t exist while enshrining anti-LGBTQ discrimination into law,” said Marty Rouse, national field director for HRC. “If lawmakers in Oklahoma truly wanted to help find permanent homes for the children in the child welfare system, they wouldn’t be focusing on narrowing the pool of potential parents, which only hurts those kids. HRC calls on the Oklahoma House to reject this needless, harmful bill.”
The bill moves to the Oklahoma house for consideration.
— David Taffet