First Anti-LGBT Bill of 2018 Moves Toward Passage

Oklahoma's Republican governor will soon decide whether to pass the nation's first anti-LGBT legislation of the year -- a bill that would allow adoption agencies to turn away same-sex couples and anyone who conflicts with an agency's religious or moral beliefs.

Indications appear that Governor Mary Fallin will sign the "Adoption Protection Act," which sailed through the House on Thursday and already passed the Senate. The bill's current form only applies to agencies that don't receive state or federal funding, but The Catholic Conference of Oklahoma is working to amend the legislation so that all adoption agencies would be allowed to discriminate in the name of religion.

With Oklahoma's foster care system already overburdened, opponents of the bill like Troy Stevenson of Freedom Oklahoma blasted it as "discriminatory," "unnecessary," and "harmful to youth."

"We will continue to fight against it becoming law, we will fight it in the court of public opinion, and we will fight it in court if necessary," Stevenson said, according to LGBTQ Nation.

Anti-LGBT adoption laws have recently been proposed in states like Georgia, and taken effect in Michigan, Alabama, Texas, and South Dakota.