The day after the 2020 presidential election the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Fulton v. Philadelphia a case that could give religious agencies that receive taxpayer dollars a broad license to discriminate against our LGBTQ cummunity. The case challenges Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination ordinance which prohibits any entity that contracts with the city from denying service on the basis of sexual orientation among other characteristics. One of the plaintiffs in the case is Catholic Social Services (CSS) which sued the city after its contract was revoked for refusing to allow gay & lesbian couples to be foster parents arguing that it has a constitutional right to do business with the city even when it refuses to comply with the city’s nondiscrimination rules. Recent data from a nationally representative survey conducted jointly by the Center for American Progress & NORC at the University of Chicago show that LGBTQ Americans avoid needed services to avoid discrimination & should they be denied access to taxpayer-funded services many would be unable to access services at alternative locations. Caroline Medina, Policy Analyst for the LGBTQ Research & Communications Project at CAP stated, “Our survey findings reveal the existing challenges that LGBTQ people face when accessing basic public services in civil society. To misuse religious liberty as a license to discriminate would set a harmful precedent & inflict critical damage on the rights of LGBTQ individuals & religious minorities, exacerbating discriminatory barriers they already encounter in their everyday lives. Justices Clarence Thomas & Samuel Alito recently attacked marriage equality under the guise of religious liberty. This case demonstrates the urgent risks to the basic rights of LGBTQ people if their extreme views are adopted as the stance of the court’s majority.” Read Full Report…
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