Connect with us

Local

In response to gay marriage, Catholic Charities end city adoption contract

Published

on

Catholic Charities, the charitable arm of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, announced this week that it has ended its city contract to provide foster care and adoption services for D.C. residents, saying it could not comply with rules requiring that it place children with same-sex couples.

“Although Catholic Charities has an 80-year legacy of high quality service to the vulnerable in our nation’s capital, the D.C. government informed Catholic Charities that the agency would be ineligible to serve as a foster care provider due to the impending D.C. same-sex marriage law,” the group said in a statement posted on its web site Feb. 17. “This is the only program Catholic Charities anticipates will be impacted by the law.”

The city’s same-sex marriage law is expected to take effect on March 3 upon its completion of a congressional review.

Existing city laws allow individual gays and lesbians as well as same-sex couples to adopt children and participate in city-run foster care programs.

Erik Salmi, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Washington, said he did not know whether the existing rules required foster care and adoption programs operated by Catholic Charities to place children with same-sex couples.

A spokesperson for the D.C. Child & Family Services Agency, which oversees city foster care and adoption programs, could not immediately be reached.

According to the archdiocesan statement, as of Feb. 1, Catholic Charities transferred its foster care and public adoption program in D.C. to the National Center for Children & Families, a private charitable group that has long provided social services in the District and Maryland.

“With a priority on ensuring continuity of care for the foster families and children, Catholic Charities worked closely with D.C.’s Child & Family Services Agency to seamlessly transition the program to the NCCF,” says the statement. “This transition includes seven staff, 43 children and their biological families, as well as 35 foster families.”

Officials with the archdiocese expressed concern last year that the Catholic organization might have to withdraw from as many as 20 city contracts through which it provides social services to hundreds of local people, including homeless shelters, as a result of the same-sex marriage law. Officials said their main concern was the new law would require Catholic Charities to provide health insurance benefits to their employees’ same-sex married spouses, which would be contrary to their religious teachings against same-sex marriage.

D.C. City Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who shepherded the same-sex marriage bill through the City Council, have urged Catholic Charities to adopt an employee benefits arrangement used by other Catholic organizations that avoids the need to recognize same-sex relationship.

The arrangement, which is used by Georgetown University, provides health insurance benefits to another person designated by the employee as a family member or cohabitating individual without the designation as a spouse.

When asked by the Washington Post if Catholic Charities was considering such an arrangement or another means of offering employee benefits without characterizing recipients as married same-sex couples, the organization’s president, Edward Orzechowski replied, “both.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

District of Columbia

Sentencing for Ruby Corado postponed for second time

Former Casa Ruby director pleaded guilty to wire fraud

Published

on

Ruby Corado’s sentencing is now scheduled for April 29. (Washington Blade file photo by Ernesto Valle)

The sentencing in D.C. federal court for Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of the now-defunct LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby on a charge of wire fraud, has been postponed for the second time, from March 28 to April 29.

A spokesperson for U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who is presiding over the case, said it was the judge who postponed the sentencing due to a scheduling conflict. The earlier postponement, from Jan. 10 to March 28, came at the request of Corado’s attorney and was not opposed by prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C.

Corado pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to a single charge of wire fraud as part of a plea bargain deal offered by prosecutors. The charge to which she pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for D.C. says she allegedly diverted at least $150,000 “in taxpayer backed emergency COVID relief funds to private offshore bank accounts for her personal use,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Under the federal wire fraud law, for which Corado is being prosecuted, she could be subjected to a possible maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and restitution requiring her to repay the funds she allegedly stole.

Court observers, however, have said that due to Corado’s decision to waive her right to a trial and plead guilty to the lesser charge, prosecutors will likely ask the judge to hand down a lesser sentence than the maximum sentence.

An earlier criminal complaint filed against Corado, which has been replaced by the single charge to which she has pleaded guilty, came at the time the FBI arrested her on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., shortly after she returned to the U.S. from El Salvador.

At the request of her attorney and against the wishes of prosecutors, another judge at that time agreed to release Corado into custody of her niece in Rockville, Md., under a home detention order. The release order came seven days after Corado had been held in jail at the time of her March 5 arrest.

Continue Reading

Virginia

Pride Liberation Project announces additional Va. school board protests

Student-led group challenging Trump-Vance administration’s anti-LGBTQ policies

Published

on

LGBTQ students demonstrate at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va., in June 2023. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Following their recent protests at school board meetings in Virginia to challenge the Trump-Vance administration’s anti-LGBTQ policies, a student-led rights group on Wednesday outlined plans to continue their actions.

The Pride Liberation Project released a statement in early March announcing their “March Month of Action” after their first round of protests. The Pride Liberation Project on Wednesday issued another press release that provided additional details.

“Queer students will rally at local school board meetings across Virginia, as they call for education leaders to reject the Trump-Musk’s administration escalating attacks against queer people.” said Conifer Selintung on behalf of the Pride Liberation Project. “Since taking office, the Trump-Musk administration has ignored the real issues facing our schools — like declining reading scores and the mental health crisis — and tried to bully queer students into the closet. Alongside other hateful attacks, they’ve attacked nondiscrimination protections, banned gender-affirming care, and whitewashed history.”

The Pride Liberation Project press release also included a statement from Moth, an LGBTQ student at McLean High School.

“I want to be able to go to school as myself, just like any other student,” said Moth. “To do that, I need my school board to stand up to bullies.”

The Pride Liberation Project has also released a schedule of rallies it plans to hold this month.

The first rally took place at the Prince William County School Board meeting in Manassas on Wednesday. A second event took place at the Roanoke County School Board meeting on Thursday.

Additional rallies are scheduled to take place in Rockingham and York Counties on March 24, Loudoun County on March 25, and Fairfax County on March 27.

Continue Reading

District of Columbia

Harvey Fierstein says he was banned from Kennedy Center

Gay icon called out President Donald Trump

Published

on

Harvey Fierstein (Photo courtesy of Knopf)

Gay icon and film legend Harvey Fierstein, 72, announced in an Instagram post on Tuesday that he was banned from the Kennedy Center as a result of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-LGBTQ measures in the performing space. 

Fierstein, who is a longtime fixture of queer storytelling both on screen and on stage, took to social media to criticize Trump for his recent decisions to take control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and to hide — if not erase — LGBTQ art, and sounds the alarm for the future of the United States. 

In the picture posted on Instagram, Fierstein alongside LGBTQ rights activist Marsha P. Johnson is walking in the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade in 1979, with the caption beginning with “I have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER.”

The multiple Tony Award-winning artist, who may be best known for “Torch Song Trilogy,” “La Cage aux Folles,” and “Kinky Boots,” to name a few, went on to explain his thoughts on Trump’s very public takeover of the national cultural center.

“A few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premier American theater. Those shows, most of which have been performed there in the past, include, KINKY BOOTS. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, TORCH SONG TRILOGY, HAIRSPRAY, SAFE SEX, CASA VALENTINA, SPOOKHOUSE, A CATERED AFFAIR, THE SISSY DUCKLING, BELLA BELLA and more.”

“I have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn’t care less,” the post continued. “He does this stuff only to placate the religious right so they’ll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification. He attacks free speech. He attacks the free press. He attacks America’s allies. His only allegiance is to himself – the golden calf.”

Fierstein then issued a warning for Americans, remarking that removing works that don’t align with Trump’s personal agenda represents a slippery slope that can lead to the erosion of democracy and emergence into fascism.  

“My fellow Americans I warn you – this is NOT how it begins. This is how freedom ENDS!”

He finished the post with a call to action for Americans to recognize and confront Trump’s injustice. 

“Trump may have declared ‘woke’ as dead in America. We must prove him wrong. WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!”

The post seemingly also pushes back on the Trump administration’s choice to remove any mention of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument’s website by including Marsha P. Johnson in his post. 

Since its upload on Tuesday, the post has gained more than 14,000 likes and 300 comments supporting Fierstein.  

Trump’s reported banning of Fierstein from the Kennedy Center comes amid the president’s drastic overhaul of the cultural venue after calling out “woke” programming on its stages, including a drag show. His actions signal a broader effort to reshape the nation’s artistic landscape to align with his administration’s ideology.

The Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached to confirm Fierstein’s claims. This post will be updated.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular