A Lesbian Mother on the Discriminatory 'Inclusion Act' Endorsed by Catholic Bishops

[theHandpuppet]

This is an amazing piece. Please read & share.

A Lesbian Mother on the Discriminatory 'Inclusion Act' Endorsed by Catholic Bishops
Marianne T. Duddy
Executive Director, DignityUSA
08/06/2014

Sometimes the personal truly is political.

Today, I read a letter sent by three Catholic bishops to U.S. lawmakers. The letter endorses a bill that would allow publicly funded child welfare agencies to refuse to place children for foster care and adoption with same-sex couples due to "their religious beliefs or moral convictions." The letter to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), lead sponsors of the contrarily-named Inclusion Act, says, "our first and most cherished freedom, religious liberty, is to be enjoyed by all Americans, including child welfare providers who serve the needs of our most vulnerable -- children."

Full disclosure: Along with being the Executive Director of DignityUSA, an organization that works on behalf of LGBT Catholics and our families, my female spouse and I are the parents of two incredible daughters who came to us through the Massachusetts foster care system.

Our daughters were both born to straight couples, one pair married, one that produced four beautiful children together over the course of more than 15 years. Both of our children wound up in foster care because their biological parents were simply unable to care for them. One child spent two months in neo-natal intensive care, withdrawing from the drugs used by her birth mother throughout the pregnancy. Due to long-standing addiction, this woman had lost custody of all of her other children, and was living on the streets of a city near Boston....

The rest of her testimony may be read here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-t-duddyburke/catholic-bishops-endorse-inclusion-act_b_5651627.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

[theHandpuppet]

1. The press release from the USCCB on the Inclusion Act

USCCB Chairmen Strongly Endorse the Inclusion Act
http://www.usccb.org/news/2014/14-135.cfm

[theHandpuppet]

2. Another story of adoptive LGBT parents

Understanding The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014
The Huffington Post
By James Nichols
08/08/2014

(excerpt)
On July 30th, the day before our 113th Congress adjourned for this summer’s recess, Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) and House Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) introduced a bill they coined “The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014.” In truth, the bill’s name is deceptive. It is about exclusion, not inclusion. It is designed to allow religious foster and adoption agencies to deny services to all “nontraditional” prospective parents, including same-sex married couples, unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples, singles who are heterosexual or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender), and people from other religions.

Dig deeper and it is clear that the “inclusion” part of the bill’s title has everything to do with money. For some years now, foster and adoption agencies in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia who refuse to match foster children with anyone but a married man and woman have been denied federally funded contracts. As a result, some faith-based child welfare providers have pulled out of these areas while other agencies without the discriminative policies have expanded services to cover those voids.

It is not difficult to see that The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014 is a misguided attempt to go back to claiming religious rights ahead of the real needs of foster children. At a time when RaiseAChild.US is successfully growing a larger, more diverse and inclusive pool of safe, loving and permanent homes for the 400,000 children in our nation’s foster care system, this bill tries to shrink and selectively edit that pool of prospective parents by using taxpayers’ funds to promote intolerance, discrimination and homophobia.

Today, 11 percent of the prospective foster and adoptive parents who have signed up at our website www.RaiseAChild.US are single straight women who tell us that they feel more comfortable joining training classes of mostly LGBT people than in classes with all traditional, heterosexual married couples. At RaiseAChild.US and at our partner agencies, all people are welcome, regardless of marital status or sexual orientation. It is our goal to find more good homes for the nation’s foster children, not less....

The rest of the story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/08/child-welfare-inclusion-act_n_5661857.html

[DreamGypsy]

3. If religious (or any other) organizations want to enforce their discriinatory policies...

...then the should not be allowed preferential treatment by the federal government. In particular, such organizations should not enjoy federal tax exemption.

Tax the Catholic Church and their promulgation of discrimination would stop pretty darn fast.