Moving the needle

CORRECTION: In the July 20-26 edition of my weekly column, the statement “Catholic Social Services … refused to consider a gay couple for fostering, turning them away simply for their sexuality” is inaccurate. No known complaints to this effect have been filed against CSS. The religious organization was Bethany Christian Services. However, CSS policy discourages any same-sex couple from applying to be foster parents as well.

Since the column dealt with your tax dollars that the state, city and federal governments were giving to those religious organizations and what they were spending them on, many people wrote to me and asked why I hadn’t used the statement, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … ” as mentioned in the Constitution, which we understand as the concept of separation of church and state.

And, as we all know, the government is represented by the attorney general and his/her understanding of that document. The attorney general should run his/her office accordingly, along with any changes or direction of legislation from Congress and recent signing orders, legislation or directives from the president.

All of this takes on a more serious note this week with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement that he is forming a “religious liberty task force.” This was followed by State Department officials applauding the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the so-called wedding-cake case.

It would come as no surprise if the State Department would attempt to institutionalize payments that would allow the church to lobby for discrimination, and have your tax dollars go to those who offer conversion therapy, and possibly go to churches that share employees’ salaries with churches that are being sued for child abuse, thereby lowering the cost of employees who do the grunt work on these cases.

Once again, it is time to emphasize that our priorities must be to get Congress to pass an Equality Act to make us a protected class, like religion, sex, race and national origin. Without that protection, all that I’ve written above is possible, and more.

We all know there’s a Republican Congress in Washington that doesn’t favor the Equality Act before it, but most government bodies weren’t during 1970 through 2000, when most nondiscrimination laws in the nation were passed, and those early activists who pushed their cities and states to pass nondiscrimination legislation would not say no. That is why you now have the limited rights you have today. 

So it is up to those activists of today to find ways and be as creative as our pioneers to get this job done. Rather than talk, we need action — civil disobedience and lobbying campaigns. And if the Democrats take Congress, demand it be a priority. If our pioneers could move the needle, shouldn’t we expect the same from those who claim to be leaders today? 

Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. You can follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MarkSegalPGN or Twitter at https://twitter.com/PhilaGayNews.

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Mark Segal is an American journalist. He is the founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News and has won numerous journalism awards for his column "Mark My Words," including best column by The National Newspaper Association, Suburban Newspaper Association and The Society of Professional Journalists.