Public Funding Should Be For Everyone

When an organization that serves the public receives government funding they should be able to discriminate.

A transitional home forced out a lesbian couple, citing their Catholic funding
LGBTQ Nation
By Gwendolyn Smith
March 15, 2019

A lesbian couple filed a complaint against the transitional housing facility they once called home, after they were forced out.

Melanie Dingess and Leslie Conners were living at the The Gardens apartment complex in Newark, Ohio, a facility for people working toward independently living, like the homeless and people with severe mental health problems. The Gardens is managed by St. Vincent de Paul Housing Facilities.

The women were forced to leave after management allegedly said they did not want gay couples living together in the facility.

Dingess and Conners moved into The Gardens last January, but they were told a month later by director of operations for St. Vincent Donna Gibson that they were not welcome at the facility.
[…]
The president of St. Vincent Housing Facilities board, Tom Harvey, said in a statement: “The St. Vincent de Paul Housing Facilities have received the complaint from the Newark Fair Housing Board and believe the complaint to be groundless and intend to cooperate with the Fair Housing Board in its investigation. That is the only statement we wish to make at this time.”

I don’t know if they received funding from HUD but if they do then they are in violation of their funding agreement. One non-governmental agency did cut their funding,

These actions have already caused United Way to reject an application for funding from the facility. They had previously provided $35,000 to St. Vincent Haven and $25,000 to The Gardens on Sixth. Emergency Food and Shelter Program, administered by United Way, had also previously given $11,177 to St. Vincent Housing.

United Way requires organizations to pledge not to discriminate in providing services. Organizations seeing funding with the United Way also have to sign a diversity and inclusion agreement in order to gain United Way resources.

In other words the Christian charity lied on their application… they had no intention of taking in homeless LGBTQ+ people.

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Are they finally seeing the light and the errors of their ways?

A majority of evangelicals now support laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination
LGBTQ Nation
By Nico Lang
March 16, 2019

A surprising group came out in favor of the Equality Act this week: evangelicals.

As a record 201 members of U.S. Congress co-sponsor legislation to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination across the country, polls show that a majority of white evangelical protestants are in favor of fully inclusive civil rights laws. According to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), 54 percent of evangelicals say they are in favor of protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation in housing and employment.

In fact, the country’s most reliably conservative religious group supports proposals like the Equality Act by a 16-point margin. Just 38 percent of evangelicals claim to be opposed to laws that would prevent LGBTQ people from being fired, denied employment, or refused housing based on who they are or who they love.

I really hope that this is true.

But somehow I don’t think that will sway the Republicans to vote for the bill.