A New Judge Ruling Allows Adoption Agencies To Turn Away LGBT+ Couples In Michigan
As of Thursday, religious-based adoption agencies that contract with the state of Michigan will be allowed to refuse to place children in LGBT+ homes.
'NBC News' reports “District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids blocked Democratic state Attorney General Dana Nessel, Michigan's first openly gay statewide officeholder, from barring the faith-based agencies from excluding LGBTQ couples from services”.
Jonker said that St. Vincent Catholic Charities should keep their practice of religious beliefs and should refer same-sex and unmarried couples to other agencies.
About the contracts the state of Michigan has with private agencies to place children from troubled homes to new families, the judge said: [Wanting to cancel the contract] "strongly suggests the State's real goal is not to promote non-discriminatory child placements, but to stamp out St. Vincent's religious belief and replace it with the State's own. ... It would disrupt a carefully balanced and established practice that ensures non-discrimination in child placements while still accommodating traditional Catholic religious beliefs on marriage".
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