Adoption news: federal anti-discrimination bill reintroduced; Catholic Charities threatens Illinois; Evangelicals cut ethical corners and worse

California Rep. Pete Stark this week reintroduced the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. The bill prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, marital status, and gender identity by an entity that receives federal funding for adoption services or contracts with an entity that receives such federal funding. Meanwhile, with Illinois authorizing civil unions as of June 1, Catholic

Catholic Charities chooses worst option for complying with DC law...and pretends it has no choice

The long wait is over. Catholic Charities of Washington, DC has settled upon its response to the District of Columbia's approval of marriage for same-sex couples. Effective tomorrow, its employees will no longer be able to add a spouse to employee health benefit coverage. Spouses who are currently covered will continue to be covered. Catholic Charities describes its response as "necessary to

Catholic Charities of DC President questioned on Kojo Nnamdi

The President and CEO of Catholic Charities of Washington DC, Ed Orzechowski, appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi Show last week. You want to listen to this show. I had the opportunity to call in, but even before taking my question and comments on the air, Kojo pressed his guest on his agency's policies, asking him repeatedly if his agency's policies were already in violation of DC non-discrimination law

The Catholic Church's red herring #2

Yesterday I wrote that legislation allowing same-sex marriage will have no impact on the issue of the church's provision of foster care and adoption services, because providing those services is already subject to DC's antidiscrimination laws.The church makes one other claim: that they will be forced to include same-sex spouses on their employee benefit plans. That, too, is a red herring. The

The Catholic Church's red herring

To hear the Catholic Church tell it, if same-sex couples can marry in DC they will have to stop providing social services here. At least that's their threat, as reported earlier this week in the Washington Post. I heard the same thing at the October 26 committee hearing. Their representative said the marriage equality bill would "hurt the people who count on Catholic Charities." (To view the