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Virginia to allow adoption discrimination against gays, others

Cuccinelli warned board of ‘personal liability’ if non-discrimination rules were adopted

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Gay News, Washington Blade, Gay Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli

Ken Cuccinelli (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Virginia State Board of Social Services voted 5 to 1 on Wednesday to allow licensed adoption agencies to refuse to approve adoptions or foster parents based solely on a would-be parent’s sexual orientation as well as six other characteristics.

The board took that action by rejecting for the second time this year an adoption related rule change first drafted in 2009 by state social services officials under former Governor Tim Kaine.

The proposed change called for banning discrimination in the state’s adoption and foster care system solely because of someone’s sexual orientation, religion, age, gender, disability, political beliefs, or family status.

MORE IN THE BLADE: CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES ‘IN DRIVER’s SEAT’ IN VIRGINIA

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and the state’s controversial attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, who took office in 2010, opposed the changes. Cuccinelli told the board in a letter that it lacked the authority to add a sexual orientation non-discrimination provision in adoption rules because sexual orientation is not a protected status under state law.

“Politics once again trumped child welfare in Virginia,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “How many times can you let the 1,300 children in Virginia’s foster care system waiting for a loving, forever home down?”

Solmonese called on the Virginia Legislature to pass legislation “that makes the best interest of the child the sole basis for adoption, not whether someone is gay or whether two caring adults are able to be married.”

MORE IN THE BLADE: VIRGINIA ELECTS FIRST OPENLY GAY SENATOR

Virginia law limits adoptions to married couples and single parents. Unlike some states, it does not prohibit gays from adopting. It prohibits adoptions by unmarried couples, gay or straight. The proposed change that the board rejected did not call for legalizing adoptions for unmarried couples.

The Family Equality Council, a national gay rights group, says as many as 6,700 adopted children are being raised in Virginia by same-sex couples, with one member of the couple having obtained the adoption.

Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, also condemned the board’s action, saying it would have an especially harmful impact on large numbers of LGBT youth awaiting adoption or placement in a foster home.

“Today, the State Board of Social Services told the people of the Commonwealth, who they represent, that it is okay for agencies licensed by the state to discriminate in making their services available to prospective adoptive and foster care parents, the 1,200 children waiting for a loving forever home and the 6,000 children in foster care,” said Claire Gastanaga, Equality Virginia’s legislative counsel.

In its action on Wednesday, the board left in place the state’s current non-discrimination policy for adoption and foster care, which bans discrimination based on race, color, and national origin.

Gastanaga, who attended the meeting in which the board voted, said the vote came after a Cuccinelli representative told the six board members that expanding the rules to include sexual orientation discrimination and the other categories could subject board members to “personal liability.”

She said legal experts supporting the expanded non-discrimination rule have disputed Cuccinelli’s claim that the board doesn’t have the authority to make the change.

A spokesperson for the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union told Reuter’s News Service that the ACLU was considering filing a lawsuit to challenge the board’s action.

The board has said that during a 30-day public comment period on the proposed rule change it received 1,611 comments in support of expanding the non-discrimination protections and 1,154 comments opposed to the expanded protections.

Among those speaking out against the expanded protects was Krystal Thompson, chief executive officer of Commonwealth Catholic Charities, one of several faith based organizations licensed by the state to facilitate adoptions and foster care placements.

“We have the right under federal and state law to make decisions consistent with our religious beliefs,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted her as saying.

Gastanaga said some faith based adoption agencies as well as non-religious agencies routinely approve adoptions and foster care placements to lesbians and gay men in Virginia.

“Equality Virginia believes that best interests of the child should be the sole basis for child placement decisions,” she said in a statement. “Discrimination based on any of the factors stripped from the final rules has no place in the decision by the state or its licensed agencies whether to provide adoption or foster care services to children or to prospective loving parents.”

Aradhana ‘Bela’ Sood, professor of psychiatry and chair the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, serves as chair of the State Board of Social Services. She was the one board member to vote against the decision to reject the expanded non-discrimination rules.

“The science really doesn’t substantiate the notion that that is the only way children should be raised,” the Times-Dispatch quoted her as saying in referring to the assumption that children do better when raised by a married heterosexual couple.

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Federal Government

UPenn erases Lia Thomas’s records as part of settlement with White House

University agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports teams

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U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon (Screen capture: C-SPAN)

In a settlement with the Trump-Vance administration announced on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania will ban transgender athletes from competing and erase swimming records set by transgender former student Lia Thomas.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found the university in violation of Title IX, the federal rights law barring sex based discrimination in educational institutions, by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”

The statement issued by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson highlighted how the law’s interpretation was changed substantially under President Donald Trump’s second term.

“The Department of Education OCR investigated the participation of one transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team three years ago, during the 2021-2022 swim season,” he wrote. “At that time, Penn was in compliance with NCAA eligibility rules and Title IX as then interpreted.”

Jameson continued, “Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX and the applicable policy of the NCAA regarding transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201 and Penn will continue to adhere to these new rules.”

Writing that “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules” in place while Thomas was allowed to compete, the university president added, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”

“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the university for future generations of female athletes.”

Under former President Joe Biden, the department’s Office of Civil Rights sought to protect against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in education, bringing investigations and enforcement actions in cases where school officials might, for example, require trans students to use restrooms and facilities consistent with their birth sex or fail to respond to peer harassment over their gender identity.

Much of the legal reasoning behind the Biden-Harris administration’s positions extended from the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on sexual orientation or gender identity under Title VII rules covering employment practices.

The Trump-Vance administration last week put the state of California on notice that its trans athlete policies were, or once were, in violation of Title IX, which comes amid the ongoing battle with Maine over the same issue.

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New York

Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade

One of the victims remains in critical condition

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The Stonewall National Memorial in New York on June 19, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.

According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.

The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.

The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.

In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.

The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.

New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.

“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”

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New York

Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade

Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform

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NYC mayoral candidate and New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani (Screen capture: NBC News/YouTube)

Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.

The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”

“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.

Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”

His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.

“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”

“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”

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