Catholic Church Playing The "I Can't Discriminate" Victim Card

-
Dan Gill for The New York Times
Catholic Charities turned away Rick Wade, left, and 
Tim Kee of Marion, Ill., when the couple tried to adopt a child three years ago.
The Catholic Church has decided to end their foster care and adoption services in the state of Illinois.  The state passed a civil unions law and blocked taxpayer funding for the Catholic charities for these services if they continued the practice of discriminating against gay and lesbian couples.

The catholic church wanted to receive taxpayer funds and block adoptions for gay and lesbian couples.

Via The New York Times:
“In the name of tolerance, we’re not being tolerated,” said Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Ill., a civil and canon lawyer who helped drive the church’s losing battle to retain its state contracts for foster care and adoption services.

Now they are crying victim.  Wow!  So, their thinking is "we want to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples...and we want the government to pay us to do it".


Critics of the church argue that no group has a constitutional right to a government contract, especially if it refuses to provide required services.
But Anthony R. Picarello Jr., general counsel and associate general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, disagreed. “It’s true that the church doesn’t have a First Amendment right to have a government contract,” he said, “but it does have a First Amendment right not to be excluded from a contract based on its religious beliefs.”
Uh, no.  If your religious beliefs involve discriminating against gays and lesbians who actually pay taxes, unlike the Catholic church, I would think the government would be required to specifically exclude you from a taxpayer funded contracts.  
Tim Kee, a teacher in Marion, Ill., who was turned away by Catholic Charities three years ago when he and his longtime partner, Rick Wade, tried to adopt a child, said: “We’re both Catholic, we love our church, but Catholic Charities closed the door to us. To add insult to injury, my tax dollars went to provide discrimination against me.”
Not anymore, Tim...at least not in Illinois.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

George Takei: Scalia Should Recuse Himself From Gay Marriage Cases

-
Image
Courtesy: wikimedia.org George Takei is both a pop culture icon and a gay rights hero!  Follow him on facebook here.  You'll thank me! Via Raw Story: During an appearance on MSNBC, actor and LGBT activist George Takei called for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse himself from upcoming cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. Scalia recently told an audience at Princeton University that someone could be  morally opposed to homosexuality  in the same manner they were morally opposed to murder or bestiality. “Well, it seems to me that if Justice Elena Kagan can recuse herself from the Boston case, Justice Scalia needs to consider recusing himself,” Takei said. “He is obviously not unbiased. He is clearly biased in this situation. So how can he look at the issue and make a judgement fairly.” “I really do think, first of all that statement was a repugnant statement to equate homosexuality with murder,...
Read more

Texas superintendent orders LGBTQ books removed from school libraries

-
Image
  Granbury Independent School District Superintendent Jeremy Glenn (Left)  In a continued attack on the LGBTQ community, the state of Texas is leading the charge.  Via The Texas Tribune: In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart. “I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81% of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.” He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, ...
Read more

Texans Ask United Nations to investigate State's Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws!

-
Image
Image Via Texas Governor's Office How is this 2024 and Texas is still acting like it's the 1950's! When you have nothing but hate and grievance to offer, this is what happens!! Via Advocate : A joint ACLU of Texas and Equality Texas press release notes that after a record-breaking legislative session in the state—with more than 140 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed—Texans are now struggling with a collection of new laws that eliminate medical freedom for trans youth, censor school libraries, ban trans athletes from participating in collegiate sports, end DEI practices at public universities, threaten drag performances, and undermine local governments’ already limited power. According to the press release, these laws are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQ+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.
Read more