The Florida house on Thursday passed a bill that would allow private adoption and foster agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples based on religious or moral grounds.

It’s the latest in a string of religious exemption bills introduced and supported in Republican-controlled state legislatures.

Under HB 7111, the “Conscience Protection for Actions of Private Child-Placing Agencies Act,” private adoption agencies with written moral or religious policies could not be penalized for turning away same-sex couples.

The bill was introduced in March as a response to another proposal, currently moving through the state legislature, to repeal Florida’s 40-year-old ban on same-sex adoption. Though it is still on the books, the ban has not been enforced since 2010, when it was ruled unconstitutional in court.

GOP state lawmakers said HB 7111, which creates a “conscience clause,” is far from a ban on same-sex adoption.

“If you are thinking about adopting a child, go do it. Gay, heterosexual—go do it,” said Rep. Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford), according to the Associated Press. “If there is one thing that I hate, it’s the thought of intolerance and selfishness getting in the way of uniting one of those children with a forever family.”

Most of the state’s 82 private adoption agencies are run by churches that oppose homosexuality, according to Bay News 9.

“You may disagree with their beliefs, you may even think that they’re crazy,” Rep. Scott Plakon (R-Longwood) said on the house floor, “but they are sincerely held beliefs.”

The bill passed the GOP-led Florida house on Thursday along party lines in a 75-38 vote.

Florida house Democrats contend that Republicans are trying to carve out a space for homophobic discrimination in light of the older ban’s repeal. Rep. David Richardson (D-Miami Beach), the first openly gay member of the state legislature, compared the measure to lunch counter sit-ins of the Civil Rights movement.

“If you’re open to the public, you’re open to the public,” said Richardson, the Orlando Sentinel reports. “If the lunch counter’s open, it’s open for everyone.”

HB 7111 will now move to the senate, which on Wednesday rejected a similar “conscience clause” that had been added to the bill repealing the defunct ban on same-sex adoption. Both chambers of the Florida legislature are majority Republican.