Texas adoption agency wants LGBTQ tax dollars, just not LGBTQ potential parents

Religious-based adoption agencies want LGBTQ tax dollars and the right to discriminate against the LGBTQ community.

This is going to come to a head soon and I think it may be in our favor. At least I hope.

From Raw Story:

A Texas adoption agency that receives federal taxpayer funds is refusing to allow a lesbian couple to become foster parents, and they’re citing their religious beliefs to support their discriminatory decision. 

Bryn Esplin and Fatma Marouf, who are married and are both professors at Texas A&M University, were told by the agency because they’re a same-sex couple they don’t “mirror the holy family,” and thus would not allow them to foster some of the thousands of migrant and refugee children the federal government is detaining.

The women pressed, saying that surely some of the 700 children under the agency’s care were LGBT and would benefit from being placed with a married lesbian couple, as The Daily Beast reports. 

Catholic Charities told them not a single child, out of 700, were LGBT. Statistically, that’s impossible.

 . . .they decided to sue the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which runs the agency, Catholic Charities of Fort Worth. The couple just won an important initial victory. The court says they have standing. They are suing charging violations of their First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as Metro Weekly reports. 

From The Daily Beast:

“They said, ‘There are no LGBT children in our care,’” Jamie Gliksberg, a senior attorney with LGBT nonprofit Lambda Legal, which is handling the case, told The Daily Beast. “Which, obviously, we know isn’t correct, and which means that the LGBT kids in the program are being discriminated against on a daily basis.” 

Nearly one in five kids in foster care are LGBTQ, according to research funded by HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, a population that is more likely to have experienced hospitalization, homelessness, and involvement with the criminal-justice system than straight and cisgender kids in foster care. Under Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, who is named in the lawsuit, the department has proposed ending the collection of this data.

. . . Late last week, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta denied a motion by HHS and USCCB to dismiss the suit. In a memorandum, Mehta declared that Esplin and Marouf have standing to sue on due process, equal protection, and First Amendment grounds, a major procedural victory—and added that HHS’ attempt to absolve itself of responsibility for USCCB’s anti-gay policy was “an astonishing outcome.”  

 . . . Although HHS proposed redirecting Esplin and Marouf to organizations that would place foster children with a same-sex couple, the couple decided that bringing down a system that allowed discrimination against prospective parents was more important than fast-tracking their own ability to foster. “When we brought this case, we very much wanted to create a fair system for everyone, and not just fix our own personal situation,” Marouf said, calling HHS’ proposal “a separate-but-equal-type setup.” “I think if you have two different signs—‘Gay Couples Apply Here’ and ‘Straight Couples Apply There’—that doesn’t really project equality,” Marouf said. “We weren’t interested in a solution that would only fix our case more quickly, but any other same-sex couple would be treated differently. We really wanted a system that treats all applicants the same, regardless of sexual orientation.”

Now there may be those who would say that since the couple was being referred to another adoption agency, why are they making waves. But here is something to consider - if religious adoption agencies can discriminate against the LGBTQ community while nabbing our tax dollars, how much do you want to bet that some state legislatures will make sure that those adoption agencies will be receiving a lion's share of the tax dollars?