A bill introduced
by Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney that would exempt
religious social service agencies from being required to
place some adoptive children in gay households is
being denounced by gay rights activists. The bill,
filed in the Massachusetts legislature Wednesday,
would exempt Catholic Charities, the social service
arm of the Catholic archdiocese of Boston, from a state
antidiscrimination law that makes it illegal to
disqualify prospective adoptive parents based on their
sexual orientation.
Catholic Charities has been arranging adoptions
for about a century and has placed 13 children in
same-sex couples' homes in the past 20 years. Last
week, however, the agency said it would end its entire
adoption program because state laws forbidding
discrimination against gay couples run counter to
church teachings on homosexuality.
Arline Isaacson, the cochair of the
Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, called
Romney's proposal reprehensible. "These kids need
loving and nurturing homes, and if the best match for them
is a gay family, they should be allowed to have that,"
she said. "When you start exempting from
discrimination laws in one category, someone can come
around and ask for it in another and another and another.
Ultimately the kids are the losers."
The Act Protecting Religious Freedom bill also
faces a tough road in the legislature. House speaker
Salvatore DiMasi and senate president Robert
Travaglini, both Democrats, have said they would oppose the
Republican governor's efforts.
Romney said the exemption would not allow
discrimination based on race, national origin, gender,
or handicap. The governor, a potential candidate for
president in 2008, said he is concerned that the legal
requirement that gays be given equal consideration as
prospective adoptive parents violates Catholic
Charities' religious beliefs.
"It is a matter beyond dispute and a
prerequisite to the preservation of liberty that
government not dictate to religious institutions the
moral principles by which they are to carry out their
charitable and divine mission," Romney said in a
letter to house and senate leaders. He said Catholic
Charities' withdrawal from providing adoption services
creates a void in the child welfare system.
Romney has argued that exempting religious
organizations from nondiscrimination rules would not
inhibit gay couples from adopting because other
agencies can meet their needs. Most adoptive children in
Massachusetts are placed by the Department of Social Services.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, a fellow Republican
hoping to succeed Romney as governor, recently said
she disagrees with the governor's position. (AP)
