LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (LifeSiteNews) – Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a new law that will ensure religious adoption and foster agencies do not have to place children in same-sex homes or other places that conflict with their faith.
The Keep Kids First Act forbids the state from “requir(ing) any private child placement agency to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the private child placement agency’s sincerely held religious or moral beliefs”; or from “establish(ing) or enforc(ing) any per se standard, rule, or policy that precludes consideration of a current or prospective foster or preadoptive parent for any particular placement based in whole or in part on the person’s sincerely held religious beliefs regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.”
It also says the state “shall not take any discriminatory action against a person whom the state government places custody of a foster or preadoptive child with, whether in whole or in part” on the basis of that person’s “(s)incerely held religious belief, or intent to guide, instruct, or raise a child, based upon or in a manner that is consistent with that person’s sincerely held religious belief”; or his or her “(r)efusal to accept or support any government policy regarding sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with the person’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”
“Every child deserves a loving home that can provide them stability and opportunities to grow. Yet other states have put politics over people by excluding caring families and faith-based adoption and foster care organizations from helping children find loving homes,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Greg Chafuen responded. “Thankfully, Arkansas has taken the critical step to pass HB 1669, the Keep Kids First Act, which prioritizes the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions.
“ADF commends Rep. Mary Bentley and Sen. Alan Clark for their leadership and steadfastness, and Gov. Sanders for signing it into law to ensure more families can open their hearts and homes to children in need of a safe and loving environment. We also thank the Arkansas Family Council for its monumental work on this important effort. Now and always, children deserve loving families.”
A substantial amount of social science literature supports the truth that children are best served by homes with both a mother and a father, as each sex tends to bring unique strengths and emphases to parenting, which complement one another; and gives children a positive role model of their own sex as well as helping them to understand and relate to the opposite sex. By contrast, a homosexual male “couple” would by definition lack a mother, and a lesbian “couple” would be unable to provide a father.
Yet conservatives and pro-family advocates say that Democrats’ devotion to all aspects of LGBT ideology has come at the cost of a wide array of harms, not only to the physical and mental health of confused individuals but also to the rights, health, and safety of those who disagree, such as parents denied a say in their children’s upbringing or even knowledge of their trauma, girls and women forced to share intimate facilities with males, female athletes forced to compete against biological males with natural physical advantages, and individuals forced to affirm false sexual identities in violation of their consciences, their understanding of scientific fact, and/or their religious beliefs lest they risk firing and/or social ostracization.
