Georgia Senate passes bill allowing rejection of LGBTQ+ adoptive parents

On February 25, 2018 • By Brenna Hilby

On Friday, Feb. 23, the Georgia Senate passed a bill allowing adoption agencies the ability to refuse to work with LGBTQ couples. Introduced by Senator William Ligon of District 3 and sponsored by five additional legislators, the bill supports agencies’ use of religion as justification to reject LGBTQ parents. Adoption agencies, religious or otherwise, have had the ability to turn down gay couples prior to this legislation, but this bill now legally safeguards agencies from future shifts in state policy.

The bill, called the “Keep Faith in Adoption and Foster Care Act,” or SB 375, states that a “child-placing agency may decline to perform any service that conflicts with the child-placing agency's sincerely held religious beliefs,” and that the state “shall not take any adverse action against such child-placing agency for declining to perform such service.” The Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and locally-based corporations Coca-Cola and Delta have since voiced their opposition to the bill.

Many southern LGBT organizations have also spoken out, including Georgia Equality, who held a rally protesting the bill on March 1 at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Many LGBT organizations are also pressing major players in the film industry to withdraw filming projects in Georgia on account of this legislation. These organizations are also further pressing Amazon, whose plans for their second headquarters HQ2 include Atlanta as a potential candidate for development.

Some say this bill won’t help Atlanta’s chances of attracting Amazon, especially given the fact that Amazon has historically promoted their diversity as a company, and even “identifies opportunities to educate and inform employees about LGBT issues and opportunities.” River Grana, a Georgia State social work student and local activist, expressed their hopes for more Atlanta organizations to speak out and demonstrate against “discrimination and prejudice” and “people that hold the power” passing bills like this one.

“I am ready to see what the queer organizations in Atlanta will do and how we will advance and organize around this. If we keep quiet, they will continue to get away with their homophobia, and I am tired of people thinking that their prejudiced actions don’t come with consequences,” they said. Since SB 375 passed, Georgia adoption agencies are now legally protected in using religion as reasoning to reject working with LGBT parents. Susan Richardson, a case manager at the Christian non-profit agency An Open Door Adoption Agency, Inc., spoke with The Signal about the agency’s adoption policies and practices with regards to same-sex parents.

She explained that many case workers at An Open Door support same-sex marriage, but that the policy is “that they always promise a mother and a father.” “It’s not that [the agency] is against same-sex marriages, it’s just that they prefer to adopt with a mother and a father in the home. They think it’s important, and it’s just their policy,” she said. She added that she herself is a single parent, but that the agency does not work with single parents or same-sex parents. “It’s just a policy they’ve had since 1987 and nobody’s ever changed it. So we just kind of go along with it,” she said.

The agency also requires adoptive parents to be of the Christian faith and requires that “all families be a Christian family that’s been married at least three years.” “We have nothing against any other religions, but that’s just a guarantee that we can provide for our moms. Plus we have more knowledge of them, and of the faith. It’s part of our ministry, to spread the word of the Lord,” Richardson said.

Grana expressed their concerns on those using religion as basis for certain decisions, beliefs and actions, and said they think it’s “unfair that people use their religion to discriminate people, but pick and choose what’s right and wrong and what they want to follow.” “This is one of the many forms of homophobia and transphobia in this country. It is every day that the LGBTQ+ community is attacked for existing. Western society is so enthralled with religion that it has defined every aspect of their life to the point that they are hell-bent on spreading it and forcing it upon everyone,” they said.

They continued by sharing their experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in Atlanta, and said they are very ”frustrated and confused,” and that they think this issue of anti-gay discrimination “should not be swept under the rug.” They explained that they, “as a queer person, do not want to live in a place with people that hold the power” making decisions based in “no facts” on behalf of their community. “I am tired of people making decisions for my community with no facts, just discrimination and prejudice to back it up. I believe this is also another example of how bad our country is at following that whole ‘separation of church and state.’ We cannot say that if we do not actually practice it,” Grana said.

Ruby Vaughn, a Georgia State student who identifies as bisexual, maintained Grana’s thoughts on this legislation, and explained that she thinks parenting and adoption has very little to do with sexual orientation. “I think it’s a big step back in human rights as a whole. Who are we to say that your parents’ sexuality really has any affect on your parenting skills?” she said. She said she thinks the adoption process can put a strain on any otherwise healthy relationship, and that this bill is a roadblock in easing that process for any adoptive family, regardless of their sexuality. “People are forced to look towards other options, which is a strain on a relationship anyway. If you’re not able to have those options anymore, what are you going to do?” Vaughn said.