WASHINGTON _ U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids has urged her Republican colleagues from Kansas to speak out against a Trump administration policy that will enable faith-based adoption services to turn away same-sex couples.
Davids, the only Democrat in the Kansas delegation and one of nine LGBTQ members of Congress, sent a letter Tuesday asking GOP members to use their relationships with President Donald Trump to help reverse the policy.
"As a member of the LGBTQ community myself, I cannot overstate the material harm this proposed rule would do. Preventing qualified, capable, and loving parents from fostering or adopting children in need of a home based on the parents' sexual orientation or gender identity is cruel and baseless," wrote Davids, the first LGBTQ person to represent Kansas at the federal level.
"Please speak out for LGBTQ Kansans and the thousands of Kansas children in foster care who will be harmed by this rule," Davids told her colleagues.
It's the first time the freshman has specifically asked the state's Republicans to join her in opposing one of Trump's policies.
The Department of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule Friday that would roll back an Obama-era regulation barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The new rule will enable groups receiving federal dollars through HHS, such as faith-based adoption services, to refuse to place children with same-sex couples without an impact on their federal funding. Kansas adopted a similar policy under former Gov. Jeff Colyer.
"This funding comes from hardworking taxpayers, and it is unacceptable to allow those funds to be used for discrimination," Davids wrote in her letter.
The rule will undergo a 30-day public comment period upon its publication in the Federal Register.
The Trump administration's rule would make HHS adhere to the federal anti-discrimination law, which does not include sexual orientation or gender identity as protected classes.
Davids is a co-sponsor of a bill that would add these categories to the law, which prohibits discrimination based on race and religion. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House in May, but has not move forward in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Davids has also co-sponsored a bill that would ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination in adoption and foster care, and provide state's greater resources to serve LGBT youth in foster care.
