Roanoke Times Slams Adoption Discrimination

I noted previously that the Virginian Pilot had slammed the Christianist bigots and their puppets in the Virginia GOP who scuttled the proposed Department of Social Services regulations that would have allowed same sex couples to adopt or serve as foster parents. Now the Roanoke Times joins the band wagon of those criticizing the special rights given to anti-gay religious affiliated adoption agencies that out of one side of their mouths claim to be "private" organizations, even as they have their hands out receiving taxpayer derived funds. As I have stated before, once an organization receives the first dollar of taxpayer funds, their "private" status needs to disappear since they are acting as an arm of the state - something that makes them subject to all of the restrictions and requirements of the U. S. Constitution. You know, inconvenient things like the banning of religious based discrimination - the root of all anti-gay bigotry - and the requirement of equal protection under the law. Here are highlights from the Roanoke Times editorial on Christ-fascist bigotry:
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On Wednesday, the Virginia Board of Social Services, at the urging of Gov. Bob McDonnell, chose not to grant equality to unmarried couples and gay Virginians in the adoption process. Private adoption agencies may continue to discriminate against them. Loving homes will remain largely unavailable for kids in search of a family.
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The debate leading up to the decision framed things primarily as a gay rights issue, but there was much more to it. The proposed regulations also would have made gender, age, religion, political beliefs, disability and family status non-issues in adoption. The opposition primarily came from religious-based adoption agencies whose faith tells them gays are unfit parents.
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An adoption agency's faith tradition might also dictate that people of another religion are unfit parents. Maybe Democrats, too, or Republicans. People who vote for pro-choice candidates. People in wheelchairs. All remain viable, albeit distasteful, reasons an adoption agency might cite to reject parents. Yet because those groups' interests were caught up in a broader gay-rights fight, they too will continue to be potential objects of discrimination.
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When it comes to finding good families for children, sexual orientation, faith, politics and all the rest have no place in the discussion. The surprising thing was not that the governor chose not to extend equal rights to gay people, but that he did not get behind the rest of the changes.