TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas new Democratic governor-elect said Thursday that she will look to block enforcement of a new adoption law that she and LGBT-rights activists consider discriminatory, a sharp break with the states two previous conservative Republican governors.
Gov.-elect Laura Kelly said she will have her staff review how far the state can go to avoid enforcing the law. It was designed to provide legal protections to adoption agencies that cite faith-based reasons for refusing to place children in homes that violate their religious beliefs.
The debate over the law centered on agencies that wont place children in LGBT foster homes. The agencies handle those adoptions of abused and neglected children for the state Department for Children and Families. Supporters saw it as a religious liberties measure.
Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, voted against what she called the adoption discrimination measure when the Republican-controlled Legislature approved it in May. In the governors race, she defeated conservative Republican Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, and was endorsed by Equality Kansas, the states most influential LGBT-rights group.
If there is way to direct the agency to not implement that, then I will do that, Kelly said during a Statehouse news conference, her first since winning the election.
Chuck Weber, the Catholic Conferences executive director, said supporters of the law will fight to see that its fully enforced.
This is not a surprise, that Gov.-elect Kelly would try to circumvent the will of the people of Kansas to advance her own radical agenda, said Weber, a former Kansas House member.
The law says the state cant force an adoption agency to make placements in homes that violate its religious beliefs. An adoption agency cannot be denied a license or state reimbursement for a placement, or blocked from participating in DCF programs, solely because of its beliefs.
Tom Witt, Equality Kansas executive director, said the law so clearly allows adoption agencies to engage in discrimination while receiving tax dollars that the state shouldnt enforce it.
There are a number of unconstitutional laws on the books that arent being enforced, Witt said. The (states same-sex) marriage ban comes to mind.
But Weber said: We were very careful in drafting that bill, in dotting is and crossing ts and making sure that this would pass constitutional muster.
