Dear Virginia Board of Social Services: You suck.
According to the Washington Post, the board—which is responsible for establishing adoption guidelines—voted 5-1 this week to sanction discrimination on the basis of potential adoptive parents’ sexual orientation, age, disability, gender, family status and political beliefs. The rules will go into effect May 1, 2012.
One board member actually doesn’t suck, though:
Board chairwoman Bela Sood noted before the decision that while society considers a mother and a father “a normal parenting unit,” scientific evidence doesn’t support some religious and conservative groups’ claims that they make better parents than same-sex couples do.
You go, Bela Sood!
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
We reached out to her for a comment, and she quickly replied with some wise words:
Each day we put up barriers to the process of permanent placement, particularly which is not supported by science or data but a value system we are creating barriers for children in establishing strong stable attachment and a life long pattern of stability and belongingness as soon as feasible.
You know who else doesn’t suck? The people of Virginia.
During an extended public comment period, the Department of Social Services received nearly 3,000 comments—the majority of which were against such bigotry.
We went ahead and placed a call to the State Board of Social Services (surprise, surprise, no one answered) and sent e-mails to the five board members who voted to support discrimination, despite the fact that more than 2,000 people disagreed.
If you want to give them a piece of your mind, their contact info is collected here. (All but Sood voted in favor of these new regulations.)
Shoot them an e-mail and let them know you’re not happy they’re trying to make less of this happen.
doug105
discrimination on the basis of potential adoptive parents’ sexual orientation, age, disability, gender, family status and political beliefs
Way to broad can already smell the lawsuit coming.
Ken
Discrimination on the basis of “political beliefs”? Really? That is one even Thomas and Scalia would strike down as unconstitutional.
dvlaries
Don’t move here. I’m stuck here, but if I croak here, I don’t even want my ashes left in this backward dump of a state.
mdthom
It’s things like this that made me move out of Virginia years ago.
Gigi
And Jews or those of any religious denomination other than christian. What the heck is going on in the States? It’s very depressing to me, and I don’t even live there!
Gigi
@dvlaries: That’s so sad. Come live in Canada!!
GGGGB
It would be helpful if you included a list of which members, exactly, it was who voted that way so that people could actually contact them. I, for example, would like to write a letter right now having literally nothing else to do
Steve
There’s no way this thing lasts, it’s every ism but racism.
GayGOP
I am grief-stricken over my future home doing this.
seth
This law is illegal
Contact the Justice Department and file complaints. That is probably the only way to actually deal with this.
ZHammer
Sue the Virginia government for money and move to Maryland or Canada.
SWH
All that crap about the US being a place of religious freedom is all bull. When those pilgrims came over seeking freedom, it was for their religious beliefs – which were extremely Christian. In my opinion, the US will never be free of this debate because the country was founded on Christian beliefs. It’s disgusting and hypocritical. Luckily, there are millions of Americans who oppose this bigotry but the ones who make it will probably never stop. I’m very glad to be born and raised Canadian. It’s not a perfect country either, but at least we practice what we preach a helluva lot more than our Southern neighbors.
Let’s hope this gets fixed!
JAW
I wish that we would cool our jets on issues like this…
Yes it is sad that they passed this law… but how many of the GLBT people are going to adopt anyway?… Let alone go to the baptists or catholics etc to find a child.
All of our bitching about issues like this put us in a bad light to people who are on the fence about supporting us. I believe that if we left religion out of the picture and stopped trying to shove our rights down the bigots throats we would be a lot further on in our quest for Equality.
Riker
@SWH: It is unfortunate that people feel that we are a Christian nation. Most of the founding fathers were Deists, who reject such basic tenets of Christianity as the divinity of Jesus and they veracity of the Bible.
In fact, the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams (I think; it might have been Jefferson or Madison), explicitly states that we are in no way a Christian nation.
R Winston
Dr Sood voted to oppose eliminating protections.
Brisendine and Metcalf Little were absent
Larkin, Spadaccini, Greene, Manuel, Johnson voted to discriminate.
Rob
The awkward moment when this violates almost every part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Silly Republicans, hand out guns citing freedom as their reason, but refusing adoption over political beliefs? What happened to the 1st Amendment they use to try to prevent laws against discrimination?
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to see a few inconsistencies in the way these people play politics.