|
|
Lambda Legal represents child welfare groups in Catholic Charities suit against Illinois
From a news release
2011-08-16
|
|
This article shared 3020 times since Tue Aug 16, 2011
|
|
(Chicago, IL, August 16, 2011) - Today Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of several child welfare organizations including the Evan B. Donaldson Institute, the National Association of Social Workers and its Illinois chapter in a case brought by four Dioceses of Catholic Charities against the state of Illinois. These Dioceses seek to force the state to fund their foster care services even though they refuse to follow state law by licensing couples in civil unions as foster parents, claiming they are exempt from state nondiscrimination requirements on religious grounds.
"The state's overarching mandate is to make child placements in accordance with a case-by-case determination of what is in each child's best interests," says Camilla Taylor, Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal. "To allow theses Dioceses to exclude categorically an entire class of people as potential foster parents would violate Illinois and federal law and deny many Illinois children their best opportunity for a better life."
Last month, the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services declined to renew contracts with the Dioceses after they insisted that they would not license couples in civil unions as foster parents. Illinois child welfare law and policies require that child placement decisions be made in accordance with each child's unique needs, and forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status. Governing professional and ethical standards for child welfare professionals also prohibit the intrusion of bias into child placement determinations. Additionally, the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution constrains the State from funding social service providers who use the dictates of a particular religion to determine who qualifies for services.
Lambda Legal's brief on behalf of the child welfare agencies argues that allowing the Dioceses to exclude couples in civil unions from the foster parent application process would diminish the pool of loving, permanent homes for children in need. It also would send a message of exclusion, not only to the couples themselves, but to lesbian and gay youth in state care, who are particularly vulnerable. Gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender-nonconforming adolescents are disproportionately represented in foster care populations because they often experience rejection by their own families. If the Dioceses' lawsuit succeeds, these children would be told by the authorities caring for them and by their government that they are morally unworthy ever of forming families of their own, and that their future relationships in adulthood - no matter how loving, how committed, or how responsible - will be inferior to those in other families.
The case is Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Springfield-in-Illinois et al. v. Illinois et al. For more information about the case, visit our website at http://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/catholic-charities-v-illinois.html
Lambda Legal lawyers Camilla Taylor, Marriage Project Director, and Flor Bermudez, Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project Staff Attorney, are joined by co-counsel Richard D. Felice of Wheaton, Illinois, and Rhonda K. Jenkins of Springfield, Illinois. |
|
|
|
This article shared 3020 times since Tue Aug 16, 2011
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill 2024-03-27 On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margina landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...
|
| | Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors 2024-03-24 On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...
|
| | Family of 2004 murder victim holds event in Lake View; reward announced 2024-03-24 The year 2004, for the family and friends of Lake View resident Kevin Clewer, will forever be marked by tragedy. On March 24 of that year, Clewer, 31, was found in his apartment at 3444 N. Elaine Pl.; he was the ...
|
| | No charges filed in Nex Benedict fight; campaigns call for Walters' removal 2024-03-22 In Oklahoma, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler announced that no charges will be filed in connection with the fight that happened the day before transgender, nonbinary high school student Nex Benedict died by suicide, NBC ...
|
| | NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist 2024-03-21 Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The billspassed out of both chambers along mostly party lineswill require clerks ...
|
| | WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes 2024-03-15 Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...
|
| | NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools 2024-03-15 In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...
|
| | College athletes sue NCAA over transgender policies 2024-03-15 Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among a group of college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on March 14, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing trans swimmer Lia Thomas ...
|
| | LGBTQ+ people attacked by mobs in Greece 2024-03-14 Just weeks after a landmark law granted same-sex couples in Greece the right to marry, nearly 200 people dressed in black chased a transgender couple through the town square in Thessaloniki, the country's "second city" and ...
|
| | PASSAGES Dorothy Elizabeth McGroarty 2024-03-14 Dorothy Elizabeth McGroarty, 82, of The Breakers at Edgewater Beach, and a former resident of Andersonville, passed away Feb. 16 surrounded by her loving family. Born in Dearborn, Michigan, Dorothy was raised on Chicago's South and ...
|
| | UPDATE: Nex Benedict's death ruled a suicide; family responds 2024-03-13 A medical examiner's report concluded that the cause of death of Oklahoma student Nex Benedict (he/they) was suicide, media reports confirmed. Benedict—a 16-year-old transgender student—died Feb. 8, a day after ...
|
| | Florida settles 'Don't Say Gay' lawsuit 2024-03-11 On March 11, the state of Florida settled a multi-year lawsuit against the so-called "Don't Say Gay" law, which limits how LGBTQ+ topics can be discussed and presented in schools, The Hill reported. The settlement agreement ...
|
| | "X" gender marker now available on Illinois driver's licenses and state ID cards 2024-03-11 After several years of preparation, the Illinois Secretary of State's office is has been making the X gender designation available for non-binary residents and others not utilizing the M or F designations, since the beginning of ...
|
| | WORLD Israeli reservist, man detained, Ghana bill, medic denied honor 2024-03-08 Hanania Ben-Shimonthe gay Israel Defense Forces reservist who was wounded as he killed one of the terrorists in the attack at the A-Za'ayem checkpoint near Ma'ale Adumim recentlypublished a post in which he pleaded that his ...
|
| | Court blocks Texas attorney general's demand for PFLAG data 2024-03-01 From a press release: AUSTIN, Texas—Travis County District Court Judge Maria Cantú Hexel on March 1 blocked the latest effort by the Texas Attorney General's Office to persecute Texas families with transgender youth, temporarily haltin ...
| |
|
|