This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
One of the strategies used by LGBT radicals across the nation has been to push for government rules that require private groups to support the leftist agenda.
For example, they've repeatedly insisted that "nondiscrimination" rules require Christians to promote alternative sexual lifestyle choices whether they want to or not.
For example, take the case of the big-time LGBT ideologues in the Colorado state government who twice tried to force small businesses to promote their ideologies in violation of their Christian faith. The state lost twice at the Supreme Court and ended up costing the state's taxpayers millions of dollars for the officials' campaign to impose their own personal beliefs on citizens.
In the adoption arena, they've used the same "nondiscrimination" agenda to try to demand that those Christian faith-linked groups place vulnerable children with LGBT individuals. They still try, despite the Supreme Court already having ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated constitutional religious protections when it cut ties to a Catholic adoption organization that declined to place foster children with same-sex duos.
Now one state has taken specific action to protect those adoption and foster care organizations.
The Christian Post reports Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed into law Act 509 after lawmakers overwhelmingly adopted it.
The Keep Kids First Act now bars the state from requiring faith-based organizations to "perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the private child placement agency's sincerely held religious or moral beliefs."
Also now banned is government action "against an adoptive or foster parent on the basis of their religious beliefs or '[r]efusal to accept or support any government policy regarding sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with' their 'sincerely held religious beliefs,'" the report explained.
It states, "The state government shall not establish or enforce any per se standard, rule, or policy that precludes consideration of a current or prospective foster or pre-adoptive parent for any particular placement based in whole or in part on the person's sincerely held religious beliefs regarding sexual orientation or gender identity."
Greg Chafuen, of the ADF, which has battled such issues in court, said, "Every child deserves a loving home that can provide them stability and opportunities to grow. Yet other states have put politics over people by excluding caring families and faith-based adoption and foster care organizations from helping children find loving homes."
He said he's thankful "Arkansas has taken the critical step to pass HB 1669, the Keep Kids First Act, which prioritizes the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions."
Leftists dislike the protection of religious rights, with the Arkansas ACLU claiming the law is "harmful."
The organization said the state instead should be demanding "affirming" families for children.
"Affirming" is a word used by leftists to describe those who support radical treatments for children caught up in the transgender agenda, including body-altering drugs and mutilating surgeries.
The report noted the Philadelphia decision from the Supreme Court, in 2021, where the justices found the city could not legally exclude Catholic Social Services from its foster program only because the organization refused to place children with same-sex duos.
The opinion noted the city was violating the First Amendment.
"Government fails to act neutrally when it proceeds in a manner intolerant of religious beliefs or restricts practices because of their religious nature," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the court opinion.
