The state of Virginia has introduced a bill that would repeal the right of adoption and foster care agencies to deny child placements with homosexual couples on the basis of the agencies’ moral opposition to same-sex parenting.

If passed, HB 1932 would undo protections that prevented adoption agencies from being sued or even being denied their license for objecting to recommending, consenting to, or participating in child placements that violate their “religious or moral convictions or policies.”

Virginia is currently one of eleven states that explicitly allow child welfare agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples because of religious beliefs, according to the pro-homosexual Movement Advancement Project.

Lack of such conscience protections have allowed religious agencies to be shut down in places like Illinois, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. CCUSA was forced to halt adoption operations in Boston, and the state of Michigan was sued by the ACLU for allowing agencies to deny adoption to homosexual couples.

“This is a matter of activist groups who don’t like certain religious beliefs and they want to use the power of the government to crush people that operate according to those religious beliefs,” Michael Schuttloffel has said.

Others pointed out that conscience protections for adoption agencies do not prevent same-sex couples from adopting. Quinn Law Centers notes that same-sex couples can legally adopt in Virginia, because “same-sex marriage” is permitted in Virginia.

Research shows that kids do much better under both a mother and a father, supporting the CDF’s statement that “[a]llowing children to be adopted by persons living in [same-sex] unions would actually mean doing violence to these children,” by placing them “in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.”

A study published in the February 2015 issue of the British Journal of Education, Society, and Behavioural Science revealed that, on eight out of twelve psychometric measures, the risk of clinical emotional problems, developmental problems, or use of mental health treatment services is nearly double among those with same-sex parents when contrasted with children of opposite-sex parents.

The state of Virginia is also currently pushing policies that embrace gender ideology, which secular psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson has called “completely insane,” in its public schools.

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has drafted a policy that would force school staff to use gender pronouns corresponding to a student’s “gender identity,” as well as allow students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their chosen gender. These staff are, moreover, not allowed to question such students regarding this choice, since it “can be emotionally harmful.”

Meanwhile, Virginia’s Senate Education and Health Committee has shot down two bills that would allow religious exemptions for vaccinations, further eroding religious rights in the state.