SUPPORT IN COLORADO FOR LESBIAN PARENTS DENIED PLACEMENT OF CHILD IN SCHOOL
Boulder’s GLBT community is rallying around a lesbian couple told by a Catholic school that they can’t re-enroll their preschooler next year because of their relationship.
Aicila Lewis, executive director of Boulder Pride, said her organization is investigating the situation to see if anything can be done to help the family, and the group is talking with community members about discrimination “in our own backyard.”
“My favorite thing is, ‘You fall down six times and get up seven,’” Lewis said. “The movement toward equality is always going to have moments of disappointment.”
But, she said, there have been a lot of successes — including progression in the Boulder Valley School District, which has gay-straight alliance groups in every high school and support systems for students in elementary and middle schools who are gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual.
Teachers at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in central Boulder earlier this week were told at a staff meeting that the preschool student won’t be allowed to return to the school next year because of the child’s parents, who are lesbians. In a statement, the Archdiocese of Denver said: “We expect all families who enroll students to live in accord with Catholic teaching.”
At a meeting Friday night to discuss the next steps, members of Boulder Pride and community members said they needed to do more outreach to religious communities, including finding straight allies.
One Sacred Heart parent, who didn’t want his name used to protect his child, said “all kinds of different parents” have children at the school, including those who are divorced, single and non-Catholic, and he’s concerned that a child was turned away.
“It has seemed, in the past few weeks, that they’ve taken a super-conservative approach,” he said. “They are making sure everyone is on board not just with getting a great education but making sure they are following the Catholic doctrine also.” – Source – DailyCamera.com
ARCHBISHOP DEFENDS DECISION IN KEEPING CHILD FROM ATTENDING PRE-SCHOOL
The archbishop of Denver on Tuesday defended a decision by a Catholic school not to allow two children to continue as students because their parents are a lesbian couple.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said it was a “painful situation,” but the decision by Sacred Heart of Jesus parish school in Boulder was in line with church teachings.
Chaput said the school told the parents that one of the children could complete kindergarten and the other could complete preschool, but neither could continue after that.
In his written statement Tuesday, Chaput said the parents of Catholic school students are expected to agree with church beliefs, including those forbidding sex between anyone other than married, heterosexual couples.
“The church cannot change these teachings because, in the faith of Catholics, they are the teachings of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Chaput said Catholic schools work as religious partners with parents, but that doesn’t work if the parents don’t respect church beliefs or openly reject them. He said that also puts unfair stress on the children and their teachers.
Chaput acknowledged that many Catholic schools accept students from other faiths and from single-parent families, but he said their parents are expected to support the Catholic mission of the school.
He said the church doesn’t believe God has any less love for the children of gays and lesbians than for other children, or that gays and lesbians are bad people. – Source – AP
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