Virginia's Board of Social Services on Wednesday approved final regulations on adoption that, starting in the spring, will effectively allow state-licensed private agencies to deny the adoption of a child by same-sex couples.
The regulations also will allow the adoption agencies to deny services to prospective parents on the basis of age, gender, disability, religion, political belief and family status.
The regulations, however, will prohibit discrimination based on race, color or national origin.
The board voted 5-1 to approve the regulations, with Social Services Board Chairwoman Bela Sood casting the lone "no" vote.
"The science really doesn't substantiate the notion," she said, referring to the traditional family structure of a married man and woman, "that that is the only way children should be raised."
The regulations are set to take effect May 1. They will govern the 81 private adoption agencies licensed in the state, roughly half of which are affiliated with religious organizations such as the Catholic Church.
Under Virginia law, single people heterosexual or homosexual and married couples may adopt, but unmarried couples may not.
In April, board members struck language from the proposed rules that would have barred discrimination against prospective parents based on gender, age, religion, political beliefs, disability, family status and sexual orientation.
The change followed an earlier public comment period and a review of the proposed regulations by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who sent a memo to the board that said the broader protections of the original regulations were not covered by "applicable state law and public policy."
Cuccinelli advised that the state Board of Social Services did not have the authority to adopt them.
At the time, Gov. Bob McDonnell said he supported allowing single gay people to adopt, but that he was opposed to expanding the adoptive-parent pool to unmarried couples.
Anger over the language change in the adoption regulations led the board in August to provide for an additional 30-day public comment period.
During that time, the Board of Social Services said it received 1,611 comments in support of the expanded list of discrimination protections and 1,154 in favor of the truncated list that excludes sexual-orientation discrimination
Wednesday's vote at the Department of Social Services regional office in Henrico County was preceded by an hourlong public comment period that saw both sides of the issue aired by more than a dozen advocacy groups and individuals with personal stories of their family life.
Proponents for the revised regulations said the broader anti-discrimination language infringed on religious liberty.
"We have a right under federal and state law to make decisions consistent with our religious beliefs," said Krystal Thompson, CEO of Commonwealth Catholic Charities, which placed 375 children in foster homes and handled 85 adoptions last year.
"Virginians should not have to ask permission to perform faith-based acts of charity," said Austin Nimocks, a lawyer with the national Alliance Defense Fund.
An equal number of opponents who spoke against the regulations said the law does not allow for state-licensed private adoption organizations to discriminate. The revised regulations, they argued, were not only wrong and potentially a violation of law but also create a further impediment to placing more children with families.
"You're getting political advice about whether gay people should be covered or treated equally under the law," said Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, representing the gay rights group Equality Virginia. "Nothing has changed about the needs of children for loving and permanent homes.
"Fundamentally, what they argued for is the right to discriminate," she said after the vote.
Earlier, Richmonder Lori Plumley said there was no proof that gay parents could not successfully raise or nurture children. As the mother of a lesbian daughter, she said, her "eyes have been opened to the fact that God created each of us in a unique way in order that we might learn from, and learn to, love one another."
Going forward, Roland Winston of the group Mothers and Others said the new rules will not help to reduce the number of children who "age out" of the state's foster-care system without ever being adopted.
According to the Department of Social Services, there are 1,200 children awaiting adoption and 6,000 children in Virginia's foster-care program. "To deny six categories of people" an equal opportunity to adopt a child, Winston told the board, "is ridiculous."
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