The 30-year-old conservative group Public Advocate of the United States implied that homosexual men were child abusers in a fundraising email asking for donations to help fight against a revision to Virginia’s adoption rules.

“The thought of it sickens the soul,” the group’s founder, Eugene Delgaudio, wrote. “Practicing Homosexuals skipping hand in hand down to adoption agencies to demand a boy for themselves.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“But that’s the sick reality on the verge of being forced upon religious adoption agencies by the supposedly ‘conservative’ Virginia administration of Governor Bob McDonnell,” the email added.

The email was uncovered by The New Civil Rights Movement.

Conservative groups are pressuring Virginia’s governor to reject the revision, which would prohibit delaying or denying someone the opportunity to become an adoptive parent based on race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

But the revision would not change existing rules that prevents unmarried couples from adopting children and same sex couples cannot legally marry in Virginia.

Last week, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a law that banned all same sex couples from adopting or fostering children. The law was approved by voters in a 2008 statewide ballot initiative