Virginia
permits private adoption agencies, funded by state government, to
discriminate based on their moral and religious beliefs.
In Virginia's legal labyrinth, this is known as the “conscience clause.”
If legislators had a conscience, they would not have passed this law in 2012. If Gov. Bob McDonnell had a conscience, he would not have approved this law.
But one doubts if McDonnell ever had a conscience. He consciously accepted $165,000 in loans and gifts, but his conscience was unscrupulous.
The Supreme Court's decision to strike down state bans on same-sex marriage should prompt Virginia's legislators to get rid of the “conscience clause” law for child adoptions.
The language is simple, yet the law was crafted by simpletons.
Private agencies can, without conscience but with their own moral and religious bigotry, refuse to place children.
They can refuse if the adoption violates their “written religious or moral convictions or policies.”
The state can not deny or revoke a license of the agency if it refuses. Nor can the state or a municipality deny grants or other funding to the private agency for turning away adoptive parents for moral and religious convictions and policies.
In other words, the state is underwriting moral and religious bigotry.
What is moral to one man or woman may be immoral to another man or woman.
What is a religious conviction to one may be sacrilegious to another.
An adoption agency may refuse to place a child in a home with a Christian same-sex couple yet pander to traditional parents who are atheists.
An adoption agency may refuse to place a child with a family with Islamic beliefs yet place the child in a home that believes in Old Testament ostracism.
What's next? You smoke, so you can't adopt. You spit, so you can't adopt. You don't believe in Revelations, so you can't adopt. You are obese, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, your face is thin, your face is fat, you look shifty, you look like a pedophile...You've changed your sex. So we will refuse your request for adoption.
It began with legislators. Will it end with them? Will it ever end? Or is this just the beginning of a culture war and a generational battle?
Virginia's House of Delegates approved the bill, 71 to 28. In the Senate, the legislators passed the measure, 22 to 18.
Republicans, overwhelmingly, supported the bill; democrats, overwhelmingly, opposed the bill.
That was 2012. This is 2015. The governor and many of the legislators who supported this law are gone. They should be.
The law.
§63.2-1709.3. Child-placing agencies; conscienceclause.
A.
To the extent allowed by federal law, no private child-placing agency
shall be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to,
refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or
adoption when the proposed placement would violate the agency's
written religious or moral convictions or policies.
B.
The Commissioner shall not deny an application for an initial license
or renewal of a license or revoke the license of a private
child-placing agency because of the agency's objection to performing,
assisting, counseling, recommending, consenting to, referring, or
participating in a placement that violates the agency's written
religious or moral convictions or policies.
C.
A state or local government entity may not deny a private
child-placing agency any grant, contract, or participation in
a government program because of the agency's objection to performing,
assisting, counseling, recommending, consenting to, referring, or
participating in a placement that violates the agency's written
religious or moral convictions or policies.
D.
Refusal of a private child-placing agency to perform, assist,
counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in a placement
that violates the agency's written religious or moral convictions or
policies shall not form the basis of any claim for damages.