ACLU challenges Michigan law that allows faith-based adoption agencies to turn away gay couples

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the state of Michigan to challenge a law that allows faith-based adoption agencies to turn away same-sex couples who are seeking to adopt children.

On Wednesday, the ACLU announced that it has filed a lawsuit at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Children's Services Agency on behalf of lesbian couple Kristy and Dana Dumont.

The law, signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in June 2015, protects religious adoption agencies from being defunded for favoring heterosexual two-parent families over same-sex couple applicants. Under the legislation, such agencies are required to refer same-sex couples to other agencies that place children in homosexual and transgender homes.

According to Baptist News Global, the lawsuit does not challenge the right of any religious adoption agency to practice its religion, but it argues that Michigan should not allow private contractors who provide child care services to turn away qualified families based on religious criteria.

"Allowing state-contracted agencies to screen out prospective families based on religious criteria not only harms the children most in need, it is also unconstitutional," said Leslie Cooper, senior staff attorney for the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project.

"It violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars the use of religious criteria in the provision of government services like foster care and adoption services for children in state custody. And it violates the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating against same-sex couples," she continued.

The Michigan Catholic Conference came to the defense of the 2015 law and denounced the ACLU's lawsuit, saying it was "mean-spirited, divisive and intolerant."

"Michigan's 2015 adoption law was necessary to promote diversity in child placement and to maintain a private/public partnership that would stabilize the adoption and foster care space for years to come," a statement from the conference read.

Several Christian agencies across the U.S. have voluntarily closed their doors over anti-discrimination laws that require them to place children in homes of same-sex couples.

In June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott approved a legislation that bans "adverse action" against child welfare agencies for refusing services that conflict with sincerely held religious beliefs.

Similar measures are also in effect in other states such as Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and Virginia.

A report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has indicated that nearly 428,000 children are in foster care across the country, with 111,000 still awaiting adoption. As many as 53 percent have been waiting for more than two years to be placed in a home. Over 22,000 children have been placed in homes of same-sex couples.