Brian Lyman

Montgomery Advertiser

The Alabama Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow religious agencies to not place children with LGBT individuals.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Rich Wingo, R-Tuscaloosa, passed 23 to 9 on Tuesday night after a long day of the Republican majority pushing through controversial bills on guns and the death penalty. It goes back to the House, where it passed last month.

In the Montgomery County delegation, Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, voted for the legislation and Senate Minority Leader Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, voted against it. The vote took place mainly down party lines, though Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, voted against the bill.

Religious agencies touted the bill at a committee meeting last week as a way to function without violating their views on homosexuality or other religious agencies. Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said after the vote that state law made it clear that adoptions done through the Department of Human Resources prohibited discrimination.

"I think it goes both ways," Marsh said after the vote. "I think it covers the public entities and gives as many avenues as it does religious organizations."

But opponents of the legislation disagreed. Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, said that she knew gay couples who had adopted children and said they were loving parents, and proposed an amendment that would specifically prevent agencies from discriminating based on race, ethnicity, religious, sexual orientation or gender identity.

"I don't want to put in state law (a law) giving entities receiving state funds the power to discriminate against people," Figures said.

Prior to Figures' comments, the Senate adopted a committee amendment that did not allow religious agencies that receive state funds to discriminate against children. The amendment was tabled.

Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, the Legislature's only openly gay member, watched the debate from the floor and criticized the bill.

"None of these people know LGBT folks on that side," she said, pointing to the Republican side of the Senate. "They make the assumption we'd all be bad parents."

The passage of the bill capped a lengthy afternoon of controversial bills, which drew criticism from Senate Democrats who called the efforts an attempt to "rebrand" the Republican Party after the scandals that brought the downfalls of former Gov. Robert Bentley; former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Ross, D-Montgomery, asked why the Senate was pursuing bills that could bring legal challenges, as he said happens "every time we do something where we know we're hurting citizens and taxpayers."

Marsh dismissed that after the vote.

"I guess you could say it secures the brand of Republicans," he said. "Senate Republicans have always stood for religious rights, gun rights, and the rights of the people. That's what today was about. It wasn't a rebrand. It's what the brand is."