Last Friday, Kansas governor Jeff Colyer (pictured above) signed a bill allowing adoption agencies to refuse placement of children “when the proposed placement of such child would violate such agency’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The Adoption Protection Act, approved by the Legislature in early May, has been criticized for possibly allowing adoption groups to legally discriminate against the LGBT community.
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Colyer signed the bill at Youth Horizons Kinloch Price Boys Ranch, a Christian nonprofit that offers residential care for boys with severe individual and family challenges.
According to The Kansas City Star, the politician said the bill was “about fairness,” and not “about discrimination.” He remarked:
“What I want Kansans to know is this is about fairness and that we are protecting everyone… It’s not about discrimination, it’s about fairness. We’re looking after those kids that need a forever home.”
Hey, guess what, Jeff? Working from the assumption that children need protection from LGBT parents IS fucking discrimination.
Tom Witt, director of Equality Kansas, agreed, saying the bill will allow for taxpayer-funded discrimination:
“Governor Colyer promised Kansas he was not going to tolerate discrimination of any kind… He had an opportunity to back that up by vetoing this bill, but instead he has proven his words are meaningless.”
The bill was blasted by Lori Ross, founder and CEO of FosterAdopt Connect. She said:
“It is completely unfair that those same people who are going to be discouraged from fostering and adopting are going to be paying taxes into the state that are going to be used to pay agencies to do work that would discriminate against them… There’s nobody, myself included, that says a religious-based organization doesn’t have a right to practice whatever their deeply held religious beliefs are. When it becomes a problem is when public dollars are being used to fund a service.”
The bill received support from the Catholic Church, a really disappointing move considering the new Pope’s apparent stance on LGBT rights.
Truly a sad day in Kansas…
[Image via Jeff Colyer/Twitter.]
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