RICHMOND - A Senate committee firmly rejected legislation Wednesday that would have required state adoption agencies to determine whether applicants are homosexual, yielding to concerns raised by opponents who derided the measure as discriminatory.

On an unrecorded voice vote, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee defeated a bill (HB 2921) that had sailed through the House of Delegates earlier this month. The bill's sponsor, Del. Richard Black, R-Loudoun County, said adoption agencies must determine applicants' sexual preferences to ensure that children get placed in "stable" environments. Black's bill originally was intended to bar homosexuals from adopting children. But a House committee amended the bill to require adoption agencies to investigate whether an applicant "is known to engage in any voluntary homosexual activity or is unmarried and cohabitating with another adult to whom he is not related by blood or marriage."

Black defended his stance during a lengthy hearing on his bill Wednesday afternoon.

"It's my belief that homosexuals present certain risks as parents," he told the committee. "Homosexual behavior leads to high rates of depression, substance abuse, suicide and family disintegration. Married heterosexual families provide a more stable home, proper gender identification and less social stigmatization."

Black, a champion of social conservatives in the General Assembly, said his bill "will strengthen the practice of placing children in homes that are in the best interest of the children."

Committee members noted that state law already requires background investigations that determine whether an applicant is "morally suitable, in satisfactory physical and mental health and a proper person to care for and to train the child."

Opponents of the bill questioned its usefulness.

"I'm not sure this [bill] would do anything, even if we passed it," said Sen. Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, the chairman of the committee.

Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, used stronger language in explaining his opposition.

"This thing comes awfully close to being pretty bigoted," Saslaw said.

The bill's demise marked a rare victory in this session for advocates of equal rights for homosexuals. Both houses already have passed proposed constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriages.

"They [the committee] did the right thing," said Dyana Mason, the executive director of Equality Virginia, the state's largest gay rights advocacy organization. "It's been a tough session. But I'm happy that we're getting fair and strong hearings right now."

Victoria Cobb, the executive director of the Family Foundation of Virginia, expressed disappointment with the committee's vote, saying the state "has a responsibility to ensure that children are adopted in the most stable environments possible, including reviewing the promiscuity of anyone desiring to adopt."

Some opponents of Black's bill also attacked the credibility of a psychologist whose research Black used to argue for his legislation. Paul Cameron, the chairman of the Colorado-based Family Research Institute, told the committee that homosexuals are similar to drug addicts and prostitutes "in a sense that they more frequently disrupt society, they less frequently contribute to society and they generally generate excessive costs for society."

Under questioning from the committee, Cameron acknowledged that the American Psychological Association expelled him in 1983 for alleged ethical violations. The American Sociological Association also has accused him of misrepresenting sociological research.

Cameron described his differences with the organizations as "political."

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