ACTION ALERT: Virginia May Allow Adoption by Homosexuals
The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) is now considering changing their regulations in order to pave the way for homosexuals to adopt children.
In April of 2011, the VDSS adopted regulations that prohibit private adoption agencies in the commonwealth from denying or delaying adoption or foster care on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
Homosexual activists, backed up by the ACLU and Equality Virginia, protested the absence of “sexual orientation” from the list of protected classes and pressured the VDSS into prolonging the public comment period to allow for extended debate over whether homosexuals should be added to the list of those people every adoption agency must allow to adopt or foster children. The newly-extended public comment period now ends on October 11, 2011.
This is a direct assault by homosexual activists on Christian adoption agencies, which make up most of the private adoption agencies in Virginia. If “sexual orientation” is added to the list of protected classes, all of these Christian adoption agencies would be legally forced to allow homosexuals to adopt and/or foster children.
At stake is the definition of family itself. Forcing these Christian adoption agencies to place children with homosexuals would blatantly violate their convictions about the God-ordained definition of family. Christian adoption agencies who hold true to these convictions would no doubt be forced to shut down.
The possibility of shutting down is not a theory; it has already happened in other places like Massachusetts, where pro-homosexual adoption regulations caused many Christian adoption agencies to close their doors rather than disobey God’s Word.
This doesn’t have to happen in Virginia. You can help!
ACTION ITEM:
1. Click here to go to the VDSS website listing for the proposed changes: http://www.townhall.virginia.gov/L/comments.cfm?stageid=5857.2
2. Click on “Enter a Comment.” Add your name and comments in the appropriate boxes.
3. When you comment, be sure to write about the importance of religious freedom for private adoption agencies in Virginia. Point to the tragic situation in Massachusetts as an example of what will happen in Virginia if the proposed changes are made. Feel free to use your comment to bear witness to God’s definition of the family as well as God’s intention for children to grow up in homes with both a mother and a father. Conclude your remarks by politely asking the VDSS to reject “sexual orientation” as a protected status due to the harm that would befall adoption in Virginia.