While news coverage has been saturated with stories of protests and pandemics, some of the Trump administration’s recent actions have gone under the radar. At the beginning of Pride Month, the Trump administration effectively pushed to allow religious adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples and deny them permission to adopt. Openly queer indie rocker Lucy Dacus fought back against the news by sharing her own adoption story.
The Department of Justice recently filed a briefing in the Supreme Court case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that dates back to 2018, in which the City of Philadelphia ended a contract with Catholic Social Services upon learning they had discriminated against LGBTQ folks and refused to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. According to NBC News, the DOJ’s brief argued that “Philadelphia has impermissibly discriminated against religious exercise,” and that the city’s actions “reflect unconstitutional hostility toward Catholic Social Services’ religious beliefs.” The brief was also completely voluntary, as the federal government is not a party in the case.
Dacus spoke out against news of the briefing. Retweeting a pair of screenshots from an article that covered Trump’s attempted ban, Dacus said it’s not the first time he has tried to do this. “I’m adopted, my mom was adopted, & if I ever have a kid I’ll probably adopt them,” Dacus wrote. “My experience has been marked by love, generosity, & respect. Ofc gay people should be able to adopt.”
He’s tried to do this before (during pride no less) & again I want to say: I’m adopted, my mom was adopted, & if I ever have a kid I’ll probably adopt them. My experience has been marked by love, generosity, & respect. Ofc gay people should be able to adopt. https://t.co/48ryjdArX0
— Lucy Dacus (@lucydacus) June 12, 2020
Check out Dacus’ statement above.