The Florida Senate is set to vote today on a bill that would allow adoption agencies using public funds to discriminate because of their “written religious or moral convictions or policies.” The bill is aimed primarily at stopping adoptions by LGBTQ prospective parents—but could also be used to discriminate based on race, religion, or other factors.
The state Senate a couple of weeks ago rejected an amendment to a different bill that would have done the same thing. At the same time, the House passed HB 7111, devoted to “religious liberty” in adoption. That means that the Senate must now vote on that bill. While I would hope they reject it as they did the amendment, nothing is certain—and as you can see from the video links below, the impact of the bill’s passage could be far reaching.
If you live in Florida, please contact your state senator and tell him or her not to vote for discrimination. If you don’t live in Florida, contact any friends and family who do and urge them to contact their senators.
Here’s one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Jason Brodeur (R-Seminole County) answering questions during legislative proceedings about the impact of the bill:
- He says it would allow discrimination against single moms.
- He dodges the question of whether it would allow discrimination on the basis of race.
- He says it is possible that the bill would allow discrimination on the basis of religion, in answer to the question asked by Rep. Joseph Geller (D-Aventura), about whether the bill would allow adoption agencies to turn away him and his wife, who are Jewish.
- And when Rep. Katie Edwards (D-Plantation) asked a representative from the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops: “So as a single Jewish woman who was raised Catholic, I need not apply if I want to adopt a child?” he told her she could, but that “it would probably not be facilitated through a Catholic agency.”