Proposed rule could allow adoption groups to exclude LGBT parents

A proposed rule by the Trump administration would allow foster care and adoption agencies to deny their services to LGBT families on faith-based grounds.

The proposal would have “enormous” effects and touch the lives of a large number of people, said Denise Brogan-Kator, chief policy officer at Family Equality, an advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families.

The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday released the proposed rule, which would roll back a 2016 discrimination regulation instituted by the administration of President Barack Obama that included sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.

Any organization — including foster care and adoption agencies or other entities that get department funding — is “now free to discriminate” if it wants to, Brogan-Kator said.

The rule could be published in the Federal Register as early as Monday, followed by a 30-day comment period. After that, the rule will become final.

Critics, such as Brogan-Kator, said the rule would allow organizations to place their personal religious beliefs above the needs of children in their care, but the administration countered that it was not preventing LGBT people from adopting.

Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called the proposal “horrific” and said it would “permit discrimination across the entire spectrum of HHS programs receiving federal funding.”

“The Trump-Pence White House is relying on the same flawed legal reasoning they’ve used in the past to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people,” he said.