August 08, 2018

American LGBTQ families are under attack

located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

Last month, the Republican party introduced a legislation piece that would give a free pass to adoption agencies that deny services to same sex couples on religious grounds.

The amendment, introduced by congressman Robert Aderholt (R-Alabama), is part of a funding bill for the Department of Health, Labor and Education that seeks to punish states that ‘discriminate’ against agencies that refuse to work with LGBTQ parents, by cutting 15 percent of the state’s federal funds for child and welfare services. The amendment has already passed the House Appropriations Committee (with all Republicans but one voting for it), and is now pending a final vote in the House.

Defending the amendment, Republican lawmakers, spearheaded by Aderholt, contend that the bill would both protect the religious freedom of adoption agencies, such as Catholic Charities and Bethany Christian Services, and ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children who would allegedly be denied the opportunity to find a home should those agencies be banned by local governments. In a July 2018 statement, Aderholt said, “The Federal Government, and any State or local government that receives Federal funding for any program that provides child welfare services, shall not discriminate or take an adverse action against a child welfare service provider on the basis that the provider has declined or will decline to provide, facilitate, or refer for a child welfare service that conflicts with…the provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

In reality, however, it is this very amendment that would constitute an assault on children seeking new homes, as LGBTQ parents in the U.S. are six times more likely to adopt a child than heterosexual couples. Following the advancement of the bill in the senate, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi commented that, “House Republicans chose to sacrifice the well-being of little children to push a bigoted, anti-LGBTQ agenda, potentially denying tens of thousands of vulnerable children the opportunity to find a loving and safe home.” Pelosi’s stance was echoed by Davis Stacy, director of Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy organisation, who says, “Any Member of Congress who supports this amendment is clearly stating that it is more important for them to discriminate than it is to find loving homes for children in need.”

Pelosi and Stacy are right. As they embark on yet another attempt to weaken the LGBTQ family unit, Republicans prove that even the future and safety of children across America is fair game when it comes to promoting their cause.

In response to the growing outcry by Democrats (and several Republicans) who vow to fight the bill, a spokesperson for Rep. Aderholt insisted that the amendment is not ‘anti-gay’, but rather an attempt to include as many adoption agencies as possible in the process, saying “If you are a same sex couple, you can go to a different agency and adopt there.”

What needs to be made clear is that there is absolutely no difference between denying services to an individual based on their sexual orientation or gender identity than due to their religious affiliation or the colour of their skin. Turning away an LGBTQ parent from an adoption clinic is just as severe as refusing to work with a black person or a Muslim. The rhetoric and agenda promulgated by Republicans such as Aderholt is therefore not only hypocritical and misleading, but unbelievably dangerous, for it legitimises and institutionalises the blunt discrimination of a minority group, while masquerading as a crusade to defend religious freedom and equal treatment for all under the law.

Photo: Flickr/Caitlin Childs

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