Google and Apple are stepping up to show their LGBT pride as well as their opposition to Kansas adoption legislation.
More than 80 companies are organizing and calling themselves TechNet to help make the point clear that discrimination is not acceptable. On Friday, the group of 80+ communicate in letter form to Kansas legislators that the proposed measure was giving a "license to discriminate."
State lawmakers are currently considering the Adoption Protection Act, which would ensure that faith-based child placement agencies could gain state contracts even if they deny otherwise qualified adoptive parents to a placement that would violate that agency’s “sincerely held religious beliefs.” – Kansascity.com
Supporters of the bill state that the bill isn't constructed to discriminate against any part of the population, but it has been created to keep faith-based agencies free to uphold their religious beliefs without fear from lawsuits.
Backers of the measure are correct to point out that Catholic doctrine discusses homosexuality as an “an intrinsic moral evil” and that similar legislation elsewhere is supported by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
But Catholics, far more than many other faiths and the general population, are generally more supportive of LGBT people’s right to marry, raise children and adopt. Multiple public opinion surveys bear this out. – Kansascity.com
Most are interpreting the bill to be a way to prevent the state from denying grants and contracts to faith-based agencies for refusing to place children into homes that are not in alignment with their religious beliefs.
Will TechNet's letter, the group that Apple and Google belong to, make an impact? With the letter stating that enacting such legislation would have "dire" economic consequences, is this a threat of a possible boycott of Kansas where companies nationwide would avoid a doing business with a state that passes laws like this and seems unwelcoming toward diversity and its LGBTQ citizens?
h/t: Kansascity.com