Op-ed Highlights Religious Liberty and Same-Sex Marriage Conflict

Aug 24, 2006

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer published an op-ed by Becket Fund Legal Counsel Roger Severino entitled, "Gay rights vs. religious beliefs."  After discussing the City of Philadelphia's recent decision to penalize the Boy Scouts financially for their moral opposition to same-sex conduct, Roger explains that this is just on example of a broader problem: 

Like the Boy Scouts, religious institutions that oppose same-sex marriage will find themselves no longer welcome as partners in a variety of government social-service programs - from family counseling, to addiction programs, to job-placement services - and may even lose their access to public land for religious retreats, just as the Boy Scouts have lost their access to public land for their Jamborees.

In the employment context, religious institutions would be prohibited - on pain of "marital status discrimination" lawsuits - from firing an employee who publicly rejects the institution's opposition to same-sex marriage by obtaining one.  Religious employers might even be forced, against their principles, to extend health and retirement benefits to their employees' same-sex spouses.

Religious universities that provide married-student housing would be required to provide rooms to everyone legally married, including same-sex couples, even if the university objects on moral grounds.  And this problem is hardly speculative or alarmist - it's already happening on a small scale, even before the legal redefinition of marriage makes it much more common.  For example, fair-housing laws have already been applied in New York City to require Yeshiva University to open up its married-student housing to same-sex domestic partners.

The full op-ed is available at this link.  These examples come from a conference the Becket Fund sponsored in December 2005 on the impact of same-sex marriage and religious liberty featuring articles from people across the political spectrum who are both supporters of and dissenters to same-sex marriage.