The ACLU sued Michigan on Wednesday, demanding the state stop using religiously affiliated adoption agencies that refuse to work with same-sex couples, saying it violates the couples’ rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Michigan couldn’t discriminate against same-sex couples, so any private agencies it contracts with to perform child placement services cannot discriminate, either.
That would rule out agencies such as Bethany Christian Services and Catholic Charities, which cite their religious beliefs in declining to work with same-sex couples looking to foster or adopt children.
“This practice harms vulnerable children by denying them access to loving families that they desperately need and violates the Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution,” the ACLU argued in its complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The plaintiffs are Michigan taxpayers and same-sex couples that have been turned away from adoption agencies.
They want the court to issue an injunction preventing the state of Michigan from working with the religiously affiliated agencies, and to ensure that same-sex couples are treated the same as heterosexual individuals.
A spokesman for Michigan’s Department of Health & Human Services, said they wouldn’t comment on a pending lawsuit.
“The safety and well-being of children is Bethany Christian Services’ primary concern,” a spokeswoman for Bethany Christian Services told The Washington Times, declining to comment on the lawsuit.
The Michigan Catholic Conference called the litigation “mean-spirited, divisive and intolerant.”
“It is counterproductive toward efforts to assist vulnerable persons and to promote a variety of opportunities for differing families,” the Michigan Catholic Conference said in its statement.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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