Virginia Senate Passes Anti-Gay Adoption Bill

While most of the country and world moves forward, Virginia is lurching backwards in time under the theocratic rule of the Republican controlled Virginia General Assembly. Bills that are the wet dreams of far right fanatics are advancing and the rights of minorities are under constant threats. Even the Commonwealth itself - at least under state law - can openly fire LGBT employees, voter suppression bills aimed at blacks and Hispanics are moving forward in both legislative houses, and a bill that will allow state financed private adoption agencies to openly discriminate gays, those of unpopular religious faiths, and even those with unfavored political views has passed the Virginia Senate and is guaranteed to be signed into law by Governor Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonald. If McDonnell thinks he can run for the GOP VP slot as a "moderate conservative" he needs to get his head out of his ass. It's depressing and underscores why no LGBT individual and no modern, progressive business should move to Virginia. Instead, they need to turn down job offers and locate else where and tell the religious extremists in Richmond exactly why Virginia is an unwanted destination. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on this travesty:

The Virginia state Senate passed legislation Thursday allowing private adoption agencies to deny placements that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, including opposition to homosexuality.

The mostly party-line 22-18 vote virtually ensures the Republican-backed bill will become law. The House of Delegates has an identical version of the bill and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell says he will sign it. Virginia would become just the second state with such a law, which supporters said was modeled after North Dakota’s.

State Sen. Jeffrey McWaters, a Republican from Virginia Beach, said his “conscience clause” bill protects the religious rights of private child placement agencies, including dozens that contract with the state to provide foster care and adoption services.

Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria and the only openly gay member of the General Assembly, suggested all the talk about religious freedom is a smokescreen for discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. “It has always been about denying LGBT Virginians the right to form families, no matter what we say,” Ebbin said.

He said the bill will endanger gay and bisexual children, who make up a disproportionate share of youths awaiting a home, by allowing agencies to place them with parents opposed to homosexuality.

The Family Foundation of Virginia, which lobbied for the legislation, lauded the Senate’s action. “The passage of conscience protection for private child placement agencies by a bipartisan majority in the Senate is a tremendous victory for religious liberty and for the thousands of children and families around Virginia that are served by these agencies,” Victoria Cobb, the foundation’s president, said in a written statement.

The Child Welfare League of America had sent a letter to senators earlier in the week urging them to reject the bill, saying it would just make it more difficult to place the approximately 1,300 Virginia children waiting for a home.

I'm sure passage of the bill made Victoria Cobb's day. If one wants to see the face of hate and bigotry, a good place to start is with Ms. Cobb. If there is a God, I suspect she has a reserved seat in Hell. She surely is a strong reason NOT to want to be considered a Christian.

Here's Adam Ebbin's statement in opposition to the bill: