Governor Mary Fallin/Wikicommons
The Daily Beast
Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Mary Fallin, has signed into law a bill allowing adoption and foster care agencies to reject prospective parents on “religious” and “moral” grounds—a move critics say legalizes discrimination against LGBT and non-Christian parents.
The law, approved by lawmakers earlier this month, could affect any prospective parents to whom a child-welfare agency has religious objections, including interfaith couples, single parents, and even married couples in which one person has previously been divorced. Agencies will be allowed to turn away individuals in cases that “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.”
While Fallin insisted the law will not prohibit LGBT couples from adopting, critics have already vowed to take the matter to court. Freedom Oklahoma, a political advocacy group fighting for LGBT rights, called the law “state-sanctioned hate” and told Fallin and the lawmakers who approved the legislation, “We’ll see you in court.”
“It appears that the underlying purpose of this law is to isolate and alienate members of the LGBTQ community as separate and not equal. That is not the intent or spirit of the United States Constitution and is inherently inconsistent with the recent Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodgesguaranteeing same sex couples not only the right to marry but also all of the rights and benefits attendant to marriage.”
