LGBTQ Advocates Supporting New Legislation

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LGBTQ advocates are speaking out in favor of three bills just introduced in the Michigan Legislature that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of religion or sexual orientation by state-funded adoption and foster-care agencies. They would reverse laws passed in 2015 that allowed such practices in the name of religious freedom. Erin Knott, with the group Equality Michigan, supports the bills.

“The interests of children who are placed in foster care or up for adoption should be the top priority, and not the interests of the adoption agency. Sexual orientation has no place or relevance in the decision about whether or not a couple can provide a good supportive home for a child.”

Senate Bill 275 would allow same-sex partners to adopt each other’s biological or adoptive children. Senate bill 272 would bar church-based child-placement agencies from refusing to adopt to couples of a different religion, and SB 273 and 274 would allow governments to hold agencies accountable in cases of proven discrimination.