The bill’s author claims that his legislation offers alternatives to rejected couples because it “directs state child services to ensure that other outside adoption providers without religious objections are made available to help would-be adoptive parents who get turned away by any who do raise objections.” But as the ACLU of Texas notes, this attempted loophole may not matter anyway, because these agencies run thanks in part to taxpayer funding:

“When Texans come to the table, the government has to treat all Texans the same. This is state-sponsored discrimination.”

An even more deplorable fact is that this legislation would also subject LGBTQ kids “in the foster care system to comply with an agency’s faith-based requirements,” noted Towleroad, “which could include conversion therapy.” “Ex-gay therapy,” as it’s more commonly known, is a harmful, debunked practice that has been condemned by “every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades” and banned in seven U.S. states so far.

According to The Guardian, “more than 100 children died in Texas child protective services last year, when a judge had already ruled that the system violated youngsters’ constitutional rights by leaving them more troubled when they left the system than when they entered it.” And remember that this hateful, discriminatory, and possibly unconstitutional legislation is all being done under the guise of protecting children. Right.

According to the Texas ACLU, there are more than 22,000 kids in the state who are waiting to be placed in loving homes. Bigoted elected officials in the legislature may claim to be all about family values, but it’s clear they would prefer to keep kids without the love and stability of a family than risk the chance of handing them over to loving parents that just happen to be of the same sex or non-Christian. Texas, this is a disgrace.