SCOTUS Has It Wrong

June 16, 2021 - The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled that Philadelphia may not bar a Catholic agency that refused to work with same-sex couples from screening potential foster parents, claiming that religious freedom trumps all other rights. SCOTUS has it wrong.

I hope our friends, colleagues and allies will bear with me if this post seems more personal than most of those I write. It is personal for me; let me explain why.

Before I assumed the role of Director of Eastern European Affairs for The Global Justice Institute, I was Director for Marriage Equality and Family Issues for several years. I also worked in the child welfare system in Florida for many years. During those years we worked tirelessly to change Florida child welfare policy and legislation that prohibited placement of children with same-sex families. At that time over 2,000 children languished in poorly matched foster care placements and residential treatment facilities, simply because no other options were available.

Limiting the availability of good stable loving homes in which to place dependent children is not\ a gay rights issue – it is a children’s issue. Policies such as these leave children trapped in foster homes with numbers of children far over the legal limit, homes that barely qualify for placement, and even homes where foster parents assume the role hoping to benefit financiallyby fostering as many children as the system will allow. Certainly, this is not always the case, but it happens far more often that necessary. Every child deserves a good and loving forever home which often happens through foster care systems that refuse to discriminate and thereby rob these children of the opportunity for permanent placement. This is, to be sure, a children’s rights issue.

Let me tell you about my Godson, Logan. Logan spent years in the foster care system in Florida. About a year ago he was placed with our good friends Jarrod and Brian. This was made possible in part by our previous work with the Florida child welfare system, the Florida Department ofChildren and Families and the Florida legislature. With a difficult past, Logan immediately began to thrive. His grades improved and he made the honor roll at school for the first time. His mood began to brighten, his attention span improved, and his ability to form meaningful attachments with others grew steadily. Logan thrived in this placement with his two dads, and I
was deeply honored the day I was invited to become Logan’s Godfather. He recently graduated from Middle School and is looking forward to a bright future. Logan and I have talked a lot about God and faith, and he recently asked me to baptize him. Here is a picture of Logan on his Middle School graduation day and one of him and his wonderful dads on their adoption day (used with permission).

Study after study shows that children in homes with same-sex parents do at least as well, if not better than, children in homes with opposite gender parents. They do well in school, their social skills are on target with appropriate markers in child development and they do well in colleges, universities, trade schools, work environments and long-term relationships. And let’s be very clear about this, the sexual orientation of a child’s parents, whether biological oradoptive, does not determine the sexual orientation of child. Any claim in that regard issimply false.

Just one more thing. I have served as a delegate to all three of the United States Department of State’s Ministerials for the Advancement of Religious Freedom. I am deeply committed to this concept. However, religious freedom ends when it demands that people of faith be allowed to discriminate against others. In God’s realm, however we view God, there is room for everyone regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, creed or other distinguishing factor. Prohibitingchildren from being placed in good and stable homes, regardless of the gender of the parents is just plain wrong. It is wrong as a public policy issue, and it is wrong as a so-called protection of religious freedom. Remember, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”

In Florida we have a well-known law firm whose motto is “For the people.”

As an individual and on behalf of The Global Justice Institute, call us FOR THE CHILDREN. SCOTUS has it wrong!

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