S.C. gay and lesbian activists are angry that a conservative Christian-interest group could be included on a state committee studying adoptions by gay and unmarried couples.

A bill before the state Senate would make the Palmetto Family Council the only private group guaranteed a position on the study panel. No professional social science organizations or gay and lesbian groups were named to the committee.

The Palmetto Family Council is a nonprofit group that advocates for traditional families and opposes gay marriage.

Gay and lesbian activists say putting the group on the committee stacks the deck against nontraditional families.

“It doesn’t make sense that they’re the main opposition (to gay adoption) and they get a seat on the committee,” said Johanna Haynes, S.C. Equality Coalition chairwoman. “We’re hoping that would be reconsidered and we would at least get a seat at the table, too.”

Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, the bill’s sponsor, said he didn’t know how the Palmetto Family Council got on the study committee and he would consider removing the group.

Fair said he would have to think about having a gay and lesbian group sit on the panel because, he said, their behavior is not condoned by most South Carolinians. “That gives them a legitimacy that society and South Carolina says isn’t acceptable.”

In its original form, the bill prohibited gay or unmarried couples from adopting or becoming foster parents.

State Sen. Maggie Glover, D-Florence, added the requirement that the two-year study by the committee also be done, though it wouldn’t delay the law taking effect if passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Glover said she didn’t ask to include the Palmetto Family Council on the study committee, either.

Glover opposes Fair’s bill partly because, she said, it would limit the pool of potential foster or adoptive parents.

Because the bill is opposed, it’s unlikely to pass the Senate this year.

But Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, said his group is working to get the bill passed.

Smith said he would welcome help on the committee from a gay and lesbian group. He said the Palmetto Family Council is opposed to any unmarried couple — gay or straight — adopting a child.

“I think we need to protect our children from modeling that behavior,” Smith said.

Fair agrees.

He said he has seen cases in which children were harmed by parents in nontraditional relationships.

“If you have two competing interests, is it the safety of the child or the sexual freedom of the adult which is the most important?” he said. “To me, it’s clear. It’s the safety of the child.”

Gay and lesbian activists say that ignores many studies showing that children thrive in nontraditional families.

They say that is why it is so important for them — or at least an unbiased social scientist — to be included on the committee.

“It’s not a political thing; it’s about families,” said Warren Redman-Gress, executive director of Alliance for Full Acceptance, a gay and lesbian advocacy group in Charleston. “It’s a study committee, it’s not a lunch group.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com.