The Senator Majority Floor leader, Greg Treat, took the unique role of championing a significant legislative effort to protect and assist faith based adoption agencies in efforts to match biological parents, their children, with the adoptive parents of their choosing. Just as Tribal entities stridently seek to advance their racial agenda by law, in the adoption process; Some biological parents seek to place their child with adoptive parents who will raise the child in the faith and values that are dearly held by the biological parents. But faith based adoption services are becoming increasingly concerned that litigious entities are using the courts to seek to undermine both the values of some families, and the success of these private agencies in accommodating the will of the two sets of parents that are voluntarily coming together for the sake of the child. The senate process of the floor deliberations took a very long time, due mostly to the endless questions of a unique trio of Democrats (Matthews, Ikley-Freeman, & Floyd). The bill now goes to the Governor for a final signature. |
ChristianHeadlines.com gives us this background info on why these bills are now being filed in many states. According to CBN News, Texas lawmakers saw a need for the bill after a same-sex couple in Michigan sued the state because two Christian adoption agencies denied them opportunities to adopt children. "I really have not faced any discrimination over being gay so calling the agencies and being told that it's our policy not to place kids with same-sex families was pretty hard to hear," said Kristy Dumont, one of the plaintiffs. However, Scott Collins, of Buckner International, which is a faith-based adoption ministry, said that faith-based agencies don’t want to discriminate against same-sex couples, they simply want the freedom to adhere to their convictions that God designed families to consist of one man and one woman. "We believe that God's design for a family is a man and a woman. That's our biblically held belief and so, based on that, and with a number of other faith-based providers here in Texas, and obviously with the support of legislature and the governor of Texas, we have been able to secure this extra layer of protection for us to be able to really live out our biblical convictions,” said Collins. The law has received backlash not only from the LGBT community, but from leaders of other states, some of which have stopped sending employees to Texas and other states with conservative laws because they believe this could be viewed as supporting discrimination. |