Members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators are urging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reject a proposed rule change. The change would allow foster care and adoption agencies to deny services to same-sex couples.
The proposed change would remove protections against discrimination relating to agencies receiving taxpayer funds. Democratic county Legislator Kitley Covill wrote in a letter that this could potentially lead to foster care and adoption agencies putting religious beliefs above the needs of children in their care. Covill says qualified parents willing to take on such a commitment to a foster child should not have any barriers. Thirteen other county legislators signed onto the letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is accepting public comments on the proposed rule change through December 19. (Department of Health and Human Services Grants Regulation RIN 0991-AC16)
