The Oklahoma Senate has passed a law that would make it legal for adoption companies to refuse services to same-sex couples.
As The Tulsa World reports, the measure passed by a vote of 35-9 and now heads to the House for consideration. LGBTQ advocacy groups decried the Senate vote.
Marty Rouse, national field director for the Human Rights Campaign said, “Bills such as SB 1140 are a clear attempt to solve a ‘problem’ that simply doesn’t exist while enshrining anti-LGBTQ discrimination into law.”
Meanwhile the bill’s author, Senate Majority Floor Leader Greg Treat, disagreed with the idea that the bill sanctions discrimination against gay couples. Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, defended the measure, saying, “All the bill does is simply codifies the right of faith-based adoption agencies to continue to operate according to their religious principles.”