A Virginia government body on Wednesday approved adoption and foster-care rules that will allow state-licensed organizations to discriminate against prospective gay and lesbian parents, the Associated Press reports.

The state Board of Social Services voted 5-1 to strip from the regulations language barring adoption and foster agencies from discriminating based on sexual orientation, age, disability, gender, family status, and political beliefs.

Conservative legislators and faith-based groups had called for eliminating the antidiscrimination provisions added in 2009 by then-Gov. Timothy Kaine’s administration. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli advised the board that it did not have the authority to bar private and religious groups from discriminating against gay people.

More than half of the state’s 81 licensed adoption service providers are faith-based.