The D.C. Government’s Strike against Foster Kids – and Religious Liberty
Chuck Donovan /
This week Washington, D.C. became the second U.S. jurisdiction to lose the benefit of Catholic Charities’ adoption and foster care services over the issue of same-sex marriage. Early next month, barring Congressional or judicial intervention, the District of Columbia will become the sixth U.S. jurisdiction to authorize same-sex marriage. As the law developed last year, the Archdiocese of Washington, of which Catholic Charities is a part, endeavored
to avoid a conflict between its social services and the new D.C. marriage law.
The two major points of conflict involve the interaction of the marriage law and prior laws enacted banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status. First, the laws would require city contractors, including charities that operate homeless shelters and other programs, to provide any benefits they offer to married couples to heterosexual and homosexual couples on the same basis. Second, the same laws affect licensing practices, so that the adoption and foster care agency operated by Catholic Charities would have been required to place children with same-sex couples.