Michigan will no longer fund adoption agencies that refuse gay parents



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Michigan will no longer provide funding to adoption agencies that push out LGBTQ parents because of religious objections following a new court settlement.

Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) and lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have reached settlement, according to the Associated Press.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is now required to maintain non-discrimination clauses in its adoption agency contracts and terminate contracts with agencies deemed discriminatory to the agency. For couples or LGBTQ persons.

The settlement arises from a complaint filed by the ACLU in 2017 on behalf of two lesbian couples and a woman who was in the Michigan foster care system when she was a teenager.

The couples claimed in the lawsuit that they had been turned away by Bethany Christian Services and Catholic Charities because of their sexual orientation.

A law passed in 2015 by a Republican-controlled legislature allowed Michigan adoption agencies to remove members of the LGBTQ community if they cited a conflict with their religious beliefs.

However, according to the Detroit Free Press, the law's provisions did not extend to agencies that had a contract with the state's Ministry of Health and Social Services, the lawsuit said.

A lawyer representing the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom, who has been involved in this case on behalf of other faith-based agencies, told The Associated Press that the result of the agreement announced on Friday "will be tragic ".

"Thousands of children will be prevented from finding the loving homes they deserve.This regulation violates the state's law protecting the agencies of religious adoption," said the government. lawyer Lori Windham at the news agency in a statement.

Kristy and Dana Dumont of Dimondale, two of the plaintiffs in the case, told the AP that they hoped the new settlement "will mean more families for children, especially those who have been waiting since years that a family adopts them ".

"And we are looking forward to welcoming one of these children into our family," they added.

"Discrimination in the provision of case management services and adoption of host families is illegal, for whatever reason," Nessel told AP in a statement. communicated. "Limiting the possibility for a child to be adopted or fostered by a loving home is not only against the goal of the state to find a home for every child, but also to a direct violation of the contract that each child placement agency passes with the state. "

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