DC – Catholic Church Threatens to Pull Social Services Over Gay Rights

The WashingtonPost reports that the Catholic Church is threatening to end a wide range ofservice programs in the District of Columbia pending the passage of a same-sexmarriage bill by the DC Council next month. The bill has language that requires, among other things, prohibitingdiscrimination against gay men and women by religious organizations. 

A spokeswoman for the church stated that “the city issaying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us,that’s really a problem.”  Thechurch says that it will be forced to abandon its contracts with the cityincluding those that provide social services to the community.  Specifically, the church points to the $10million it contributes to city social services to illustrate the impact of thebill.  The DC government has respondedthat the church is not “an indispensable component of [the city’s] socialservices infrastructure.”  PeterRosenstein of the Campaign for All D.C. Families states that “the issue here isthat they are using public funds, and to allow people to discriminate withpublic money is unacceptable.” 

The DC Council is expected to pass the bill next month.  Council members state that they are baffledby the church’s position, but that they are willing to find another partner to providesocial services who will be able to make use of the $8.2 million in citycontracts that currently goes to the church.

SS