Religious Exemptions

Today, Lambda Legal and 75 national and state civil rights, child welfare, and faith organizations submitted a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Alex Azar urging him not to grant South Carolina’s request for an exemption from federal nondiscrimination law for faith-based, government-funded child welfare providers.

The U.S. Supreme Court today decided to overturn the unanimous decision of the Washington Supreme Court ruling that a Richland, WA florist had violated the Washington Law Against Discrimination when she refused to sell flowers to a same-sex couple for their wedding.

Today, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer signed into law Kansas SB 284, a license-to-discriminate bill that allows taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies to reject foster or adoptive parents based upon the agency's religious beliefs.

The governors of Oklahoma and Kansas must veto these damaging child welfare bills, not compete to see who will become the first in 2018 to sign discrimination into law and withhold loving homes from vulnerable children.