The state of Tennessee recently passed a bill which undermines the ability of LGBTQs and same-sex couples to adopt children. And its governor, Bill Lee, said he will sign the bill into law.
From MSNBC:
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday that he’ll sign into law a measure that would assure continued taxpayer funding of faith-based foster care and adoption agencies even if they exclude LGBT families and others based on religious beliefs. The GOP-controlled Senate gave the bill final passage on the first day of the 2020 legislative session after it was initially approved by the House last April. The bill was sent to the Republican governor amid warnings by critics of possible negative consequences for Tennessee’s reputation.
According to MSNBC, some have said the bill wasn't necessary due to Trump's proposal to rescind a rule made by Obama which kept foster care agencies from receiving federal funds (tax dollars) if they discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But the sponsor of the bill, Sen Paul Rose, said the bill was still necessary just in case Trump wasn't re-elected.
According to The Hill, the concern about about tax dollars going to groups who discriminate did cause a legislator to unsuccessfully add an amendment addressing the issue:
State Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro (D) said the bill’s provisions also address a scenario he had never known to occur. "There is no threat by the federal government, there is no threat by the state government" to shutter faith-based adoption agencies, Yarbro said. "I am unaware of anything that is trying to close these things down." Yarbro attempted to add an amendment to the bill that would only extend its protections to agencies that did not receive public funds, but it was stripped from the final version.
So to recap - Tenn is passing a law which says foster care and adoption agencies can still receive taxpayer dollars even if they discriminate against the LGBTQ community. But that is not the story you receive if you read an article from the American Family Association's "news" affiliate One News Now:
Tennessee lawmakers have thrown their support behind legislation that defends the rights of faith-based adoption agencies.
Gov. Bill Lee has announced he will sign the bill, which states that Tennessee will continue working with faith-based agencies even if they refuse to place children with homosexuals and lesbians, The Associated Press reported. David Fowler of the Family Action Council of Tennessee says the new law will not impact Tennessee like it would affect politicians and opponents in a liberal state such as California. “The reason is that Tennessee has no general laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Fowler explains. “So private organizations in Tennessee aren't under that kind of constriction that could apply, for example, to a Christian adoption agency.”
. . . Faith-based adoption agencies, however, have been punished in recent years over accusations that holding to their faith equates to hate and discrimination. Liberal states such as Illinois and Massachusetts have punished, for example, Catholic Charities for refusing to change its policy. Fowler tells OneNewsNow the Tennessee law protects those adoption agencies if a future governor tries to force Christian adoption agencies to change their policies, which would mean ignoring their own beliefs about biblical marriage and the family.
Those two paragraphs are the gist of the article's narrative - that Christian adoption agencies are being "punished" for being made to follow the same rules other groups have to when it comes to receiving tax dollars and that they have a "right" to help themselves to LGBTQ tax dollars even while discriminating against the LGBTQ community.
The subject of these groups having access to tax dollars while discriminating against tax payers isn't in the One News Now article. It's omitted and I'm pretty sure the omission is intentional. That subject is almost always ignored by conservative evangelical groups like AFA (or in the case of this link - the Alliance Defending Freedom) when they go into their martyr act designed to make people think that faith-based adoption agencies should be above the rules.
It just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Groups like AFA previously relied on junk science, cherry-picked and horror stories about pedophilia and disease to bolster their opposition to us adopting children. That only lasted until they couldn't prove this nonsense in court. Now they are weaponizing religion and faith to undermine our attempts to have families. And they do not care that children are getting caught in their line of fire. To them, it was never about providing homes to children who need them. It's all about keeping the LGBTQ community in a second class status; physically and psychologically.
That's what it's always been about.
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