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发帖数: 19713 | 1 A subcommittee of the Virginia Senate on Wednesday approved a so-called “
conscience clause” bill that would allow state-funded adoption agencies to
refuse to approve adoptions or foster care placement on religious or “moral
” grounds.
State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who is gay, said that although the
words “sexual orientation” or “gay” and “lesbian” are not in Senate
Bill 349, lawmakers clearly understand that it’s aimed at justifying the
denial of adoptions or foster child placement for gay people.
“This would put into the law that they can be turned away,” Ebbin said. “
The issue is simple –whether or not state dollars should be used or
taxpayers’ funds should be used to fund discrimination in adoption and
foster care.”
Ebbin noted that Virginia provides about $800 million a year to private,
state certified adoption and foster care placement agencies.
Meanwhile, separate bills that would ban job discrimination against state
workers and ban adoption-related discrimination based on sexual orientation
and gender identity died in committee in the Virginia Senate this week.
Ebbin was among the lead sponsors of both bills.
On Wednesday, the same day that the Senate Subcommittee on Rehabilitation
and Social Services approved the conscience clause bill, it rejected an
adoption non-discrimination bill that Ebbin introduced.
Ebbin’s bill called for banning discrimination in adoption and foster care
placement based on a list of categories, including sexual orientation and
gender identity.
Two days earlier, on Jan. 30, the Virginia Senate’s Committee on General
Laws and Technology voted 8-7 along party lines to defeat an employment non-
discrimination bill that Ebbin and Sen. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico County)
introduced.
Senate Bill 263 called for protecting state employees from discrimination
based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
A similar bill introduced in the Virginia Senate passed in committee and in
the full Senate in 2010 and 2011 when the Senate was controlled by Democrats
. It died both years in the House of Delegates, which was Republican
controlled.
Democrats lost control of the Senate in the November 2011 election, which
left the Senate equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. The state
’s Republican lieutenant governor, who has authority to cast a tie-breaking
vote, effectively placed control of the Senate in the Republicans’ hands. |
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