The Trump administration is responding to the case Fulton v. Philadelphia. Welfare organization, Catholic Social Services (CSS), has refused to work with same-sex families in adoption cases, citing religious rights and freedom of speech. This political move from the Catholic charity is in violation of the City of Philadelphia’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
The Trump administration is now responding to the case Fulton v. Philadelphia. In a decisive move against LGBTQ families, the Trump administration argued that tax-payer funded organizations should have the right to reject same-sex couples or any others whom they consider to be in violation of their religious views, “Philadelphia has impermissibly discriminated against religious exercise,” and argued that the city’s actions, “reflect unconstitutional hostility toward Catholic Social Services’ religious beliefs.”
A report from UCLA Law’s Williams Institute revealed that there are 114,000 LGBTQ couples raising children in the U.S. and same-sex couples are seven times more likely than different-sex couples to be raising an adopted or foster child. According to the same report, LGBTQ couples are more likely to take in older, special needs and minority children.
Catholic Social Services has continued to bring their case before the courts which have thus far, struck down their request to discriminate against same-sex couples hoping to adopt. In 2019, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination policy in relation to taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies.
The deputy director of the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, Leslie Cooper, spoke about the court’s ruling and said, “Prospective foster and adoptive parents should be judged by their capacity to provide love and support to a child, not the religious views of a tax-funded agency.”
In February of this year, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the religious organization’s case. Let’s hope the city of brotherly love wins.
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