Weekly Political Roundup

The big news this week was the decision by Catholic Charities of Boston to shut down its adoption services instead of adhering to state laws requiring them to consider same-sex couples as prospective parents. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services gave Catholic Charities approximately $1 million in reimbursements for its adoption-related work in fiscal year 2005.

Governor Romney realized, correctly, that this would prevent many children from finding permanent homes. (According to the Catholic Charities Web site, they have placed 720 children in permanent homes over the past 20 years. Of those 720, 13 were placed with same-sex families.) The governor therefore filed a “Protecting Religious Freedom” bill to exempt religious groups from laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Interestingly, though, the bill would still make it illegal for religious institutions to discriminate “on the basis of race, creed, national origin, gender, [or] handicap.”

Hmm. If Romney is so concerned “that government not dictate to religious institutions the moral principles by which they are to carry out their charitable and divine mission,” shouldn’t he waive all anti-discrimination laws for them? If a Catholic organization wanted, say, not to place children in Jewish homes (or vice versa), or if a congregation hailing mostly from one ethnic group wanted to avoid placing children with families of a different group, shouldn’t this be allowed, by Romney’s logic? Maybe he’s trying to placate ethnic groups who may be upset by his invokation of a 1913 law barring Massachusetts from permitting the marriage of an out-of-state couple if the marriage would be void in their home state, a law originally intended to prohibit interracial marriages.

And from the “Stay Tuned” department:

The New York State Court of Appeal, the state’s highest, announced this week that on May 31 it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage. Similar arguments have already been made in New Jersey and Washington state, and decisions could come at any time. [Insert “waiting” music from Jeopardy here.]

In Connecticut, on March 21, a GLAD lawyer will argue in front of the New Haven Superior Court on behalf of eight same-sex couples who wish to marry. This is only the first step in a case that will likely go all the way to the state’s Supreme Court.