Press

NGLTF Deeply Concerned Over Bush's Bypass of Congressional Approval

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) today expressed deep concern over George W. Bush's issuance of an executive order allowing religious service providers to accept federal funds and discriminate in employment and service provision.

The faith-based initiative, which was introduced into Congress nearly two years ago and was passed by the House but tied up in the Democratic-controlled Senate through this fall, was today partially enacted by Bush's executive orders, thereby bypassing congressional approval. This initiative could lead to widespread, government-sanctioned discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Faith-based providers could also discriminate by hiring only members of their religion or people whose lives accorded with the dictates of their religion.

"Today Bush has ordered into effect policies that could lead to the most pervasive legal discrimination in the U.S. since the 1960s," warned Sean Cahill, Director of the NGLTF Policy Institute. "Already in Kentucky and Georgia, where states have experimented with faith-based initiatives, two lesbians have been fired from their jobs for their sexual orientation, and one Jewish applicant was told, 'We don't hire people of your faith.'"

Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have indicated that they consider current rules requiring religious organizations providing social services with public funds to set up separate 501c3 arms and not to discriminate in employment or service provision, to constitute discrimination against religious groups.

NGLTF Deputy Executive Director Darrel Cummings said, "Bush's actions today could lead to widespread discrimination not only on the basis of religion, but also on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Religious discrimination is often a proxy for racial, gender-based, and anti-gay discrimination."

It is ironic that Bush ordered these policies into law even as he denounced Trent Lott's recent comments endorsing the segregationist politics of 1948 Presidential candidate Strom Thurmond. "In his criticism of Lott, Bush rightly advocated for the 'equal dignity and equal rights of every American,'" Cummings said. "Yet in his next breath Bush legalized unequal treatment of millions of Americans who may be of the 'wrong' religion or of the 'wrong' sexual orientation. This shows Bush just doesn't get it."

"In order to preserve our democracy, the separation of church and state must be maintained," Cahill said. "The wholesale privatization and desecularization of the United States' social service infrastructure will be devastating for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. This also threatens basic principles of diversity and cultural pluralism, church-state separation, and individual rights that are at the core of the American political system."

Further case studies in faith-based discrimination are available in the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Report "Leaving Our Children Behind: Welfare Reform and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community", available at www.ngltf.org/library.

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The mission of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is to build the political power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from the ground up. We do this by training activists, organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and by building the organizational capacity of our movement. Our Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, we work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., we also have offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Cambridge.