The Kansas Statehouse in Topeka

Topeka ? A network of more than 80 technology companies is urging the Kansas Legislature to reject a bill dealing with adoption services that the companies, as well as many gay rights and civil rights advocates, argue would allow discrimination against the Kansas LGBT community.

TechNet, an organization that works on public policy issues for a network of companies that includes AT&T, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google, sent a joint letter recently to House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., R-Olathe, and Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, saying passage of the bill could harm the state’s ability to attract and retain technology jobs.

“States across the county have rejected similar legislation because they have seen that discriminatory legislation can have dire consequences on economic development and business competitiveness,” the letter stated.

“We respectfully urge you to oppose legislation that would legalize discrimination and undermine our ability to continue to invest and grow in Kansas,” the letter concluded.

At issue is House Bill 2481, which includes a provision inserted by the Senate known as the Adoption Protection Act.

It would provide that no child placement agency could be could be required to take part in placing a child in particular homes if doing so would violate the agencies’ sincerely held religious beliefs.

It would also provide that such agencies could not be denied government contracts or grants, or the right to participate in public programs, on the basis of the agencies’ faith-based policies.

The bill is similar to other so-called “religious freedom” bills that Kansas lawmakers have considered over the last several years aimed at protecting the rights of individuals and private organizations to deny services to certain individuals based on religious beliefs.

Those bills, which have also been considered in many other states, have largely been a response to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.

Rep. Susan Humphries, R-Wichita, a key supporter of the measure, said in an interview that the bill is only intended to allow faith-based adoption agencies to continue doing what they are already doing now.

“This bill isn’t changing anything,” she said. “This bill is just saying what agencies have been doing for years, and generations, they have the protection that they know they may keep doing what they’ve been doing.”

The bill is currently sitting in a conference committee. So far, the House has not been willing to go along with an amendment added by the Senate, but there may be an effort in the House to pull the bill out of the conference committee and vote again on whether to accept the Senate amendment.