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Mass.
Gov. Promises Catholic Church
Exemption
To Gay Civil Rights Law
by
Michael J. Meade, 365Gay.com March 7, 2006
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Boston -- Massachusetts Gov.
Mitt Romney said Monday that he will seek a way of allowing the Catholic Church
an exemption to the state's human rights law that protects gays and lesbians
from discrimination.
The state's four bishops have called for an exemption to allow Catholic
Charities to refuse to allow gays and lesbians to adopt children.
The bishops say the state law threatens the church's religious freedom by
forcing it to do something it considers immoral.
Political leaders on both sides of the aisle at the State House are opposed to
amending the law and at first Gov. Romney also rejected the idea.
But Romney, who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2008,
this week changed his mind.
Under the Massachusetts constitution Romney cannot unilaterally exempt Catholic
Charities from the state's anti-discrimination laws, but he said Monday that he
wants to find a way of exempting the Church agency.
Pressed by reporters on how he would do that, given the opposition in the
legislature, Romney would not elaborate.
"The church through its Catholic Charities provides an extraordinary service to
the commonwealth by placing many special needs children every year in homes,"
Romney told reporters.
"That's a service I hope we will continue to be able to avail ourselves of."
Some board members at Catholic Charities also oppose skirting the human rights
law. Last week seven board members resigned to protest the bishops'
action.
An exemption could also cost the agency millions of dollars. Several
corporations which have LGBT protections in their human rights policies have
indicated a change in the law could prevent them from continuing to donate to
Catholic Charities.
The United Way of Massachusetts Bay said it also would have to rethink the $1.2
million it annually gives the agency. In 2000 the United Way of Boston
stopped funding the local Boy Scouts because of a policy of barring gay scout
leaders. The United Way restored funding two years later when the Scouts
agreed not to discriminate.
The Catholic Church is one of several conservative groups pressing for an
amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
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