Virginia board rejects proposal that would have allowed gay adoptions

RICHMOND — Despite emotional pleas by gay-rights groups, a state board overwhelmingly voted late Wednesday to continue a practice that some argue allows faith-based organizations in Virginia to discriminate in adoptions.

The State Board of Social Services’s 7 to 2 vote came after a slew of faith-based groups and adoption agencies insisted that they be able to screen prospective parents on religious or moral beliefs.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

More on this Story

• Virginia board rejects proposal that would have allowed gay apotions
• Va. panel to weigh same-sex adoptions
• McDonnell weighs proposal that would allow gays to adopt
• Cuccinelli advises against proposed rules that could pave way for gay adoption

Live Q&A: Mon 11 ET

The vow: Ask Page

Ask your question now

“Today, the State Board of Social Services told the 1,300 children already waiting for a loving, forever home that they’ll have to wait longer,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights organization.

The proposed regulations, part of a massive overhaul of adoption rules, would have added protections on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, age, religion, political beliefs, disability and family status. The current rules follow federal law banning discrimination based on national origin, race and color.

“Its broad language would place an undue and unconstitutional burden on private faith-based child placing agencies by forcing us to compromise our religious beliefs in order to maintain our license to operate,” said Andrew Brown of America World Adoption, a Christian agency that processes 400 adoptions a year.

Virginia is one of 34 states where only single men and women and married couples can adopt, according to the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

Lawmakers and activists have disagreed about whether the proposed regulations would have allowed other classes, including unmarried couples — heterosexual or homosexual — to adopt.

But Lynne Williams, director of state licensing for the Department of Social Services, told board members that unmarried couples would not have been able to adopt even if the original proposed regulations had passed.

About 3,330 same-sex couples are raising about 6,700 children in Virginia, according to the Family Equality Council, a gay-rights organization. Most were adopted in Virginia, allowing only one parent to have custody.

Lawrence Webb and Clifton Taylor, who live in Falls Church, are considering moving out of state to adopt a child when they are ready to raise children.

“It would be a tough decision to make,” said Webb, 36, a Falls Church City Council member and assistant dean of admissions at the University of Mary Washington. “But starting a family would take precedent.”

“It should be all about a child — I don’t believe someone should tell me that I can’t,” Taylor, 31, a government contractor in the District, said.

The board, which has five Democratic appointees, voted after receiving advice last week from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and Social Services CommissionerMartin Brown, an appointee of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s (R). All three opposed the proposed changes.

Cuccinelli’s office told members in a memo that the proposal “does not comport with applicable state law and public policy” and that the board “lacks the authority to adopt this proposed language.”