Legislation that would allow private adoption agencies to deny placements that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, including opposition to homosexuality, sailed through the Virginia House of Delegates by a wide margin and without debate Friday.

The House passed the Republican-backed bill 71-28 a day after rejecting several amendments offered by Democrats aimed at softening the measure. Earlier Friday, the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee endorsed its version of the bill on an 8-7 party-line vote, sending it to the floor for a vote next week. Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell is expected to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock and sponsor of the House bill, says it protects religious freedom.

The Virginia Board of Social Services will be briefed this week on public comments submitted in response to the proposed regulatory change.

... The board faced pressure from religious groups and Virginia officials. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told the board it lacked the legal authority to enact the regulations, and Gov. Bob McDonnell also came out against the regulations, saying faith-based adoption groups should not have to place children with households led by same-sex couples.

... There are no per se restrictions on gay individuals adopting or fostering children in Virginia. Child-placement agencies are under current law allowed to reject gay single individuals' applications to adopt or provide foster care. The proposed regulations would prohibit that type of discrimination.

Eileen Guertler, director of public affairs and citizen services for Virginia's Department of Social Services, told The Huffington Post in an interview that there are some adoptions to gay individuals every year in Virginia, though she could not provide any figures.

The Virginia Board of Social Services [has] voted to delay the implementation of recently approved adoption regulations under the threat of costly litigation from the ACLU and Equality Virginia (see The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot). In a not unexpected decision, the vote will allow for 30 days of additional comment, beginning September 12. As we noted yesterday, however, with Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli opposing the old proposed regulations on several grounds, opponents will only succeed in dragging out the process longer and perhaps set the stage for a legal action challenging Virginia law.

... At yesterday’s meeting, a host of representatives from the homosexual lobby spoke in favor of the additional comment period (see Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog). Some of the speakers honestly stated that they believed allowing homosexuals to adopt should take precedence over the religious liberty rights of faith-based organizations.

Today, the Virginia Board of Social Services is scheduled to consider a request by several homosexual activist groups to reopen its decision to protect the rights of private, faith-based adoption agencies.

...Oddly, groups like Equality Virginia and the ACLU that today are advocating for more public comment were silent for nearly two years as the regulations, stealthily proposed by former Governor Tim Kaine, went through the process. After losing the vote (7-2) in April, they suddenly are very interested in more time and another vote. Now they are threatening a costly, frivolous lawsuit if they don’t get their way...

During the earlier comment period, only an approximate 30 of the 1,000-plus public comments were favorable toward adding restrictions on faith-based charities (see Washington Times). In 2002, the last year for which data is available, nearly 80 percent of adoptions in Virginia were facilitated by private organizations, nearly half of which are faith-based.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has terminated his office's relationship with King & Spalding, the Atlanta law firm that abrubtly dropped the U.S. House of Representatives as a client for purposes of defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

"King & Spalding's willingness to drop a client, the U.S. House of Representatives, in connection with the lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was such an obsequious act of weakness that I feel compelled to end your legal association with Virginia so that there is no chance that one of my legal clients will be put in the embarrassing and difficult situation like the client you walked away from, the House of Representatives," Cuccinelli said in a letter to Joseph Lynch in the firm's Washington, D.C. office.

... The firm had been retained by the Virginia AG's office Sept. 15, 2009. Cuccinelli said the firm was being terminated "effective immediately."

Cuccinelli said he acted because "Virginia does not shy away from hiring outside counsel because they may have ongoing professional relationships with people or entities, or on behalf of causes that I, or my office, or Virginia as a whole may not support. But it is crucial for us to be able to trust and rely on the fact that our outside counsel will not desert Virginia due to pressure by an outside group or groups."

Updates:

• Politico has weighed-in
• The American Bar Association online journal takes note
• David Weigel at Slate: "The precedent says what Cuccinelli implies"
• The Huffington Post chimes-in

Private and church-run adoption agencies will not be required to serve same-sex couples in Virginia, for now.

Gay rights activists asked the state Board of Social Services to require faith-based organizations such as Catholic Charities to permit gay couples to adopt children.

Wednesday, the board overwhelmingly rejected the request, and voted to stand by current regulations which only allow married couples or single men and women to adopt in Virginia, regardless of sexual orientation.

The board, which consists of five Democrats and four Republicans, voted down the proposed changes 7-2.

Today's vote confirming the rights of religious-based and private adoption agencies took place after the vast majority of public comments were found to be in support of the current regs.

Congratulations to the hundreds of you who responded to our action alert!

Once again, you made the difference.

Of course, the Washington Post doesn't see it as a victory, but at least they ended on a good quote:

“Today’s vote by the board will ensure that Virginia remains in compliance with federal law while allowing private and faith-based organizations to continue providing vital adoption services for the large number of children who need to be placed in safe, loving homes,” [Virginia Governor Bob] McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell said.

Virginia Social Services Commissioner Martin Brown, who was appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell and who also worked for two other Republican governors, George Allen and Jim Gilmore, is advising a state board that it cannot impose proposed regulations that some argue would, for the first time, allow same-sex couples in Virginia to adopt children.... The proposed changes would require private and faith-based groups, such as Catholic Charities and Jewish Family Services, to allow gay parents to adopt or foster children.

The article notes that the State Board of Social Services will consider the issue Wednesday.

And it produces utterly strange comments in support of the proposed regs like this one:

“There’s currently over 5,500 children in the foster care system in Virginia that are either in homes or need to be placed in homes,” said Adam Sharp, who chairs the Young Democrats’ Family Caucus.

Let's see, 5,500 children need homes, what should we do? I know: let's put a number of good adoption and foster care agencies out of business. That will really help those kids find homes!

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has advised a state board that it cannot impose new regulations that some argue would for the first time allow gay couples to adopt children in Virginia.

Cuccinelli’s office said in a memo dated Tuesday that the proposal to be considered by the State Board of Social Services as early as next week “does not comport with applicable state law and public policy.”

“Therefore the State Board lacks the authority to adopt this proposed language,’’ wrote Allen Wilson, senior assistant attorney general.

... “It was a correct decision in my judgment,’’ [Del. Robert G. Marshall] said. “The General Assembly has not made sexual orientation a protected class. This will be welcome news to a lot of faith- based adoption agencies.”

Lobbying efforts are intensifying over a proposed regulatory change that would prohibit Virginia adoption agencies from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

... The Human Rights Campaign today ran a full page ad in The Times-Dispatch calling on McDonnell to support the regulatory changes that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's administration set in motion before he left office.

... The Family Equality Council is also calling on McDonnell to support the change. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

"Fewer than 30 people supported the changes, according to a Washington Times review of the 1,074 comments."

Thank you once again to everyone who helped us get the word out last week - your efforts resulted in an absolutely overwhelming show of opposition to these harmful proposed changes.

Please continue to encourage VA Gov. Bob McDonnell to oppose these regs (you can do so easily right here). He's already expressed opposition to changing the system and thereby threatening all the religious-based organizations that already work on behalf of kids in Virginia, but let's make sure he continues to hear from us.

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s office has confirmed that it is taking steps to block proposed rules that would compel private agencies to place foster children with unmarried couples, including gay couples.

“This was language proposed by the Kaine administration. We are working with the agency to remove the language,” McDonnell spokeswoman Taylor Thornley said Wednesday.

... Private agencies, such as LDS Family Services, Bethany Christian Services and Catholic Charities, are also allowed to consider religion when they match parents and children.

These current regulations “seem to be working well,” Mr. McDonnell said.

The Democratic administration of Tim Kaine left a little time bomb in the making for incoming Gov. Bob McDonnell, in the form of new regulations which would require all adoption and foster care agencies to do gay adoptions. The gay blogs flipped when we dubbed this the "mandatory gay adoption" regs, but that is just what they are. Sometimes the truth hurts!

The new regs were proposed in the final weeks of the Kaine administration, hurriedly approved without publicity by the outgoing attorney general. Ostensibly designed to prevent "discrimination" against gay people in adoption, these mean-spirited regs would have actually driven religious adoption agencies out of business, by withholding licenses to agencies which refuse to do same-sex couple adoptions. (In a companion absurdity, it would also ban any kind of preference for married couples by banning "discrimination" based on "family status.")

We sent out two action alerts—with just hours to go, hundreds of you responded to our call to oppose the regulations on the public comment page. With just three or four hours to respond, before comments closed, the number of public comments opposing the regs jumped from less than 100 to close to a thousand. Way to go, and thank you!

A second action alert called on Gov. Bob McDonnell to block these regulations.

And this morning we heard from the Washington Times that McDonnell''s office has confirmed that he will block the regulations.

Thank you! You speak, and the powerful listen!

Thanks to the hundreds of you who submitted comments last Friday opposing the proposed Virginia DPS regulations that would require religious adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples, shutting them down if they refuse.

The public comment period has closed, but on Friday alone, more than 900 comments were submitted, with the great majority opposing the new regulations.

But the work isn't finished!

This new regulations were already far along before the public comment period even began back in January. As State Delegate Bob Marshall told Virginians yesterday:

“I understand Governor McDonnell's office now realizes this change is a problem. But Governor's McDonnell's staff previously signed off on these adoption changes on 12/28/10, his Secretary of Health signed off on 7/19/10, Department of Planning and Budget signed off on 2/19/10 and former Attorney General's office signed off on 12/14/09, according to Virginia's official Regulatory Town Hall website... Governor McDonnell can still weigh in on the homosexual adoption regulations and propose an amendment, but he only has 15 days from April 1 to act.”

— Bob Marshall, Virginia State Delegate

That's right, the next 10 days will decide whether Virginia government is going to shut down adoption agencies because of their religious beliefs.

Please send Governor McDonnell a message today! Urge him to personally intervene and request amendments to protect the rights of Virginia's faith-based adoption agencies today!

Then tell your friends and neighbors about this alert through Facebook, on Twitter, and by email.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) told reporters at a Tuesday news conference that he opposes proposed regulations developed by his Democratic predecessor that would for the first time allow gay couples to adopt children in Virginia.

“I know I had said during the campaign that I would essentially keep our adoption laws -- which I think are good -- the way they are now,’’ McDonnell said. “I think the current regulations that are in place seem to be working well.”

The proposal, according to the governor’s office, would mandate that gay singles and unmarried couples be able to access faith-based groups, such as Catholic Charities and Jewish Family Services, to adopt children. (WaPo VA Politics blog)

The story also notes that the proposed policy change was introduced by former Governor Tim Kaine less than two months before he left office.

Here's the timeline for accepting or rejecting the proposed changes:

McDonnell has until April 16 to make a recommendation to the State Board of Social Services, a nine-member panel of which all but four members are holdovers from Kaine.