Tony Perkins, president of the
Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC), has cheered
passage of bills in Oklahoma and Kansas that allow faith-based
adoption agencies to turn away gay couples.
Oklahoma
Governor Mary Fallin has not said whether she'll sign a bill into law
approved by lawmakers on Thursday, while Kansas
Governor Jeff Colyer has said he's looking forward to signing a bill
that cleared the Kansas Legislature on Friday. Both governors
are Republican.
Perkins, who has close ties with
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, cheered passage of
the measures, saying that “common sense lawmakers” are fighting
back against liberal “bullies.”
“LGBT activists have been fond of
saying that same-sex marriage would never affect you. Well, now, it’s
not only affecting you – it’s affecting needy kids. Across the
country, Christian charities and adoption services have been bracing
themselves against wave after wave of attack from liberals, desperate
to kick them out of the child welfare industry,” Perkins wrote.
“As far as these extremists are
concerned, no organization – including an explicitly religious one
– should be allowed to operate if they hold a biblical view of
marriage.”
“Fortunately, in some states, the
bullying is prompting a counter-attack from common sense lawmakers,
who think it’s well within a charity’s right to decide which
homes are the best and most loving options for children,” he said.
Perkins also called on Fallin to sign
the bill, saying that he hopes she will recognize “that liberal
activist are more concerned with pushing their intolerant agenda than
they are with finding children good homes.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
has labeled FRC a “hate group” because it has “knowingly spread
false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people.”