WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Family Equality submitted a comment condemning in strongest terms the removal of nondiscrimination protections for vulnerable Americans from over $500 billion in HHS-funded health and human service programs, and its immediate implementation through a nonenforcement notice.
The Family Equality comments point out that:
- The rule greatly harms vulnerable Americans who should not be turned away from taxpayer-funded services because of who they are, whom they love, or what they believe;
- By allowing child welfare agencies to turn away qualified foster parents due to their religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or being in a same-sex marriage, the rule harms America’s 440,000 foster children who urgently need families, and particularly harms foster children who are LGBTQ+ or Two Spirit or religious minorities, who could be denied affirming families;
- The Proposed Rule harms LGBTQ+/Two Spirit youth, adults and families, and the children of LGBTQ+ /Two Spirit people by allowing discrimination, service denials, and disparate treatment targeting them in services as varied as foster care, head start, child care, after school programming, meal delivery and other services for seniors, violence prevention, and more; and that
- The Proposed Rule is unconstitutional and violates the procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act.
View the comment submitted by Family Equality here.
About Family Equality
Family Equality advances legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ families, and for those who wish to form them, through building community, changing hearts and minds, and driving policy change. Family Equality believes every LGBTQ+ person should have the right and opportunity to form and sustain a loving family, regardless of who they are or where they live. Learn more at familyequality.org.
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Media Contact
Ed Harris / Chief Communications Officer
646.880.3005 x117
communications@familyequality.org