DETROIT – Today a Federal Court ruled that St. Vincent Catholic Charities, a state-licensed and taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agency in Michigan, can discriminate against same-sex parents in violation of a state contract with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that explicitly prohibits such discrimination.
Denise Brogan-Kator, Chief Policy Officer at Family Equality, issued the following statement:
“This decision places the religious beliefs of adoption and foster care agencies above the needs of children and youth. If an agency like St. Vincent Catholic Charities refuses to work with same-sex foster or adoptive parents, imagine what youth in care are likely to experience if they come out as LGBTQ or follow a different religious faith. It is critically important that our government, at the state and federal levels, place the welfare of children first, and ensure that individual contractors’ religious beliefs can never be prioritized over the needs of vulnerable youth in care.”
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, Family Equality Council
646-880-3005 x117 / eharris@familyequality.org