A Colorado Senate committee voted on two bills Monday night, proving LGBT citizens are at risk under GOP rule.
The State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee passed the “Colorado Children First Act” that allows faith-based adoption agencies to ban LGBT people and same-sex couples from adopting children, as The Gazette reports.
“Some uses of discrimination are not illegal,” Republican State Sen. Kevin Lundberg (photo), the bill’s sponsor, said. Lundberg has a long history of anti-LGBT activism. The bill is factually inaccurate, echoing the false claim advanced by the Christian right that “foster care agencies in Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District of Columbia were forced to close because of their sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage.”
In fact, they chose to close rather than treat same-sex couples equally. They also could have refused taxpayer funds and been allowed to continue to discriminate.
“This bill allows discrimination contrary to the best interests of children in desperate need of loving, caring homes,” Laura “Pinky” Reinsch, One Colorado’s political director, said.
SB 241, the “Colorado Children First Act,” now advances to the full Senate.
The Committee also voted down HB 1245, a bill that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy.” Every major medical organization in the U.S. has deemed conversion therapy, reparative therapy and other Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) ineffective and best and harmful at worst. Conversion therapy, which claims to turn gay people straight, has been like to suicide, is characterized as torture by some who have experienced it, and has been ruled as a fraudulent practice by several courts.
Defending his opposition to the legislation banning conversion therapy, Republican Sen. Owen Hill “said the bill was counter-intuitive,” The Gazette adds. “He said it instructs therapist to support minors with acceptance and support but not to change their thoughts or behaviors about being gay. The reason people go to the therapy is to seek change, he said.”
“This bill would eliminate the purpose to therapy if therapy means a desire to change,” Sen. Hill, clearly not understanding how therapy works, claimed.
“Considering the Senate majority has now killed two pro-LGBTQ bills this session, while advancing a decidedly anti-LGBTQ license to discriminate bill this afternoon, it is clear that a new majority in the Colorado Senate is needed,” Daniel Ramos, Executive Director of One Colorado, said in a statement. “A majority that is pro-equality and will stand up for all Coloradans, including LGBTQ Coloradans, in the fight for a fair and just Colorado.”
Image: Screenshot via YouTube