Oklahoma enacts law to protect adoption agencies

Oklahoma became the seventh state with a religious liberty law protecting adoption agencies over the weekend. Gov. Mary Fallin signed the bill that helps protect rights of conscience for adoption and foster care agencies that choose, on religious grounds, not to place children in same-sex or transgender households. Republican state Sen. Greg Treat, the bill’s author, pushed back against critics who said the law discriminated against LGBT adoptive parents. Treat said some faith-based groups were afraid to participate in adoptions for fear of being sued for discrimination. Fallin vetoed another controversial bill over the weekend that would have allowed adults to carry firearms without a permit or training. The Republican governor, near the end of her final term, said she supported the right to bear arms according to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but thought existing laws on gun rights were sufficient. Law enforcement officials opposed the measure.