Governor Abbott. CREDIT: Associated Press.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has happily passed legislation which allows religious bigotry against LGBTQ people, adults and children, and religious minorities as well. This bill is one of those “sincerely held religious beliefs” pieces of garbage, where the ugliest and most vile of personal feelings and religious sentiments are allowed to ruin lives at will. This bill allows for LGBTQ children to be under agencies care in “religious education.” I’m familiar with “religious education”, and for children who are already terribly fragile and imperiled, well. A lot of them won’t make it. I barely did, and to say that shit leaves a mark is an understatement of a century.
On Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill that will allow child welfare service providers to decline to provide certain kinds of care based on “the provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs.” The bill, House Bill 3859, will permit discrimination against LGBTQ couples wishing to adopt children, in addition to allowing LGBTQ children to be placed under the agencies’ care in “religious education.” The bill goes into effect in September.
As ThinkProgress noted when the bill passed the Texas House in May, the bill affects not only child placement services (think adoption agencies), but group homes, counseling services, care for abused children, and other resources for children with complicated family situations. The bill will have a broad reach, affecting organizations that provide a wide variety care options for a large number of children.
When the bill goes into effect, those organizations can legally refuse to provide care for children on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity, or on the basis of the sexuality or gender identity of someone in their family, as long as the provider can cite “religious beliefs.” They will be able to do the same for same-gender couples wishing to adopt children, and ultimately for anyone whose situation can somehow be considered in violation of their religious beliefs.
[…]
Prioritizing the religious beliefs of organizations who care for children over the religious beliefs, and human rights, of children, the bill will allow child welfare services to place LGBTQ children under their care into “religious education” that demonizes them or undermines their self-worth. A 2014 GLSEN survey found that over half of all LGBTQ children feel unsafe in schools in general, with 74 percent of students reporting verbal harassment; placing these students into homophobic conservative religious education can only add to that fear and unease.
The Human Rights Campaign noted that studies have shown LGBTQ children are more likely than their cisgender and heterosexual peers to end up in the care of child welfare organizations, often as a result of being disowned by their families after coming out, or being outed against their will. Experts say that allowing child welfare organizations to force these children into programs that further reject their identities, or even to reject them altogether, can be incredibly detrimental to their mental health and well-being.
The potential for harm goes much farther than this, unfortunately. Think Progress has the full story.
I hope the ACLU, or other lawyers perhaps providing pro bono work, will sue the state of Texass to prevent this discrimination from taking effect. Fucking republican assholes always whining about the gay agenda being rammed down their throat, but it is in fact those same republican assholes who gleefully bulldoze other people’s right to not live by their fucked-up religion.
Johnson catman:
Yeah, I know. They don’t want freedom of religion, they want a theocracy.
And when those kids kill themselves for all the christian love they’Re getting they’ll take it as evidence that being LGBTQ is inherently bad, ergo kids need to be “protected” from knowing about it.
Yeah. And as far as those hateful christians go, it’s a win-win.
I know I’m a foreigner, but I thought your constitution guarantees separation of church and state. How can you force religious education on someone? Has Texas seceded and I missed the memo?
@voyager, I am not sure I am qualified to answer your question due to my general ignorance, but this is a continuing fight, to keep church and state separated. As soon as a churchy-type person gets in power, they try and push their views on everyone else. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who really and truly believe that “if only people were more religious” everything will be OK… all the while decrying Sharia law etc. which is ALSO religious but whatever. So now that a lot of these people are in power they see it as an opportunity to push their religious agenda. Maybe it will be declared unconstitutional, eventually… but that takes time. And in the meantime innocent people can be driven to despair.
Also, remember that the USA are the only country in the world that has not signed the declaration of the rights of the child, exactly because it would guarantee children some protection from adults trying to religiously fix them.