Giving Victorian religious agencies the right to refuse adoption to same-sex couples only perpetuates discrimination, gay rights activists say.
While legalising same-sex adoption shows overwhelming support for same-sex families, introducing a religious exception fails the equality test, Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby co-convenor Sean Mulcahy says.
The state government's same-sex adoption bill passed the upper house 31 to 8 on Thursday night with last-minute amendments allowing religious exemption.
The Liberal Party, Democratic Labor Party MP Rachel Carling-Jenkins and the Shooters and Fishers Party all voted for the exemption.
The bill will now return to the lower house.
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Equality Minister Martin Foley said on Friday there was still some way to go before same-sex families were granted full equality.
"What we've seen is the Liberal Party put back into the legislation a requirement that will allow organisations that deliver services for the state to discriminate against same-sex families," Mr Foley told reporters.
When asked if Labor would agree to the changes despite its "equality is not negotiable mantra", Mr Foley replied that having the "ability to discriminate by a very small number of organisations ... might be able to be negotiated in the real world".
The Australian Marriage Forum has decried the passage of legislation as a "policy that will hurt children".
The forum's spokesman David van Gend said the laws "deliberately deprive a child of their relationship with a mother or father".
The government has begun talks with same-sex families, relevant stakeholders and organisation to consider the next step.
