A measure to protect Nebraska's faith-based foster care agencies from losing state funding if they decline to work with same-sex couples advanced from a legislative committee Friday.
The move means LB975, sponsored by Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, is eligible for debate by the full Legislature this year.
Members of the Judiciary Committee voted 5-3 to advance the bill.
Lincoln Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks and Adam Morfeld, both opponents, immediately left the room following the vote, while other senators remained to discuss other bills.
"To me, this is very personal," said Pansing Brooks, whose son is gay. "They do not care about whether or not I get to be a grandmother.
"They are welcome to practice their faith. ... But they should not be receiving state dollars."
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Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha disagreed.
He voted to advance the measure, calling it an extension of the recent lifting of Nebraska's ban on openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people becoming adoptive parents.
And faith-based agencies that supported the bill during a public hearing Feb. 10 are as sincere and committed to finding homes for children as any other child placing agency, Krist said.
However, he suspects Kolterman's bill will need amending to pass the full Legislature.
"Let's get it out there," he said. "Let's have the discussion."
Committee Chairman Les Seiler also voted to advance the measure, as did Sens. Colby Coash of Lincoln, Laura Ebke of Crete and Matt Williams of Gothenburg.
It remains uncertain whether the full Legislature will have time to vote on the bill this year. Lawmakers have 15 working days left before they adjourn for the summer.
Morfeld said he is already planning a filibuster, and Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, another opponent on the Judiciary Committee, warned his colleagues to prepare for extended debate on the history of religion.
The measure advanced two days after Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson's office issued a legal opinion saying faith-based child-placing agencies don't violate federal law by choosing not to work with certain families. An amendment further ensures the bill would not conflict with existing laws or jeopardize any federal funding Nebraska receives, the opinion said.
Kolterman says the opinion put to rest "absurd" claims that his bill might endanger $30 million or more of federal funding by allowing agencies to discriminate.
But opponents have questioned the legal opinion, which Pansing Brooks noted was written by a former anti-abortion activist, Chief Deputy Attorney General Dave Bydalek.
They also say Kolterman's bill conflicts with the goal of attracting talented young workers to Nebraska.
Pansing Brooks' son, for example, recently left the state for a nuclear policy fellowship at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. In April, he will give a talk at U.S. Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base.
"He is not one of those that our state wants to lose by having policies that shove him out," Pansing Brooks said.
Kolterman said his bill isn't intended to harm LGBT people or keep them from becoming parents.
"There's nothing in this bill that would prevent that," he said. "Quite the contrary."
The goal is to allow faith-based agencies to "cultivate those homes" within religious communities, something other agencies could not do, said Bill Williams, operations director at Compass Nebraska in Kearney.
"Every agency isn't equipped to recruit every family," Williams said, and Kolterman's bill "ensures that no prospective family is turned away."
The Judiciary Committee amendment also requires agencies that decline to work with certain families to provide them with other options.
"No one will be denied," Williams said.