Oklahoma signs discriminatory bill into law, allows adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples

Governor Mary Fallin has signed SB 1140 into law, a new discriminatory law which will allow faith-based adoption agencies to refuse potential same-sex parents. The new law also allows these agencies to refuse placement of children with single mothers and interfaith couples, though critics say this bill is aimed squarely at LGBT+ parents.

Fallin tweeted: “Today, I signed Senate Bill 1140, which allows faith-based agencies that contract with Oklahoma to continue to operate in accordance with their beliefs.”

In an accompanying press release, she wrote: “It does not ban same-sex adoption or foster care in Oklahoma. Instead, the bill will help continue Oklahoma’s successful placement of children with a broad array of loving families and basically maintain the status quo by setting forth in statute practices which have successfully worked for the best interest of Oklahoma children.

“In a day and time when diversity is becoming a core value to society because it will lead to more options, we should recognize its value for serving Oklahoma also because it leads to more options for loving homes to serve Oklahoma children.”

Representative Collin Walk said it is “nothing more than the modern 21st-century version of Jim Crows laws.”

While Representative Forrest Bennett asked: “If you didn’t intend to discriminate against same-sex couples with this bill, why did you run it?”

“Plain and simple, Governor Fallin and Oklahoma Republicans are discriminating against LGBTQ parents,” DNC LGBTQ media director Lucas Acosta said in a statement. “Rather than focusing on empowering families or uniting children with loving parents, Governor Fallin and Oklahoma Republicans want to strip qualified potential parents of their ability to provide for a child in need.”

Oklahoma currently has 10,000 children in the foster system, many of them desperately need loving families to take them in. GLAAD’s Zeke Stokes said this is “heartless and un-American,” and that “no qualified parent should be turned away from adoption or foster agencies simply because they are LGBTQ.”