A lesbian couple has sued the Trump administration over a denial of their application to serve as foster parents for refugee children.
The lawsuit, filed by the LGBTQ legal group Lambda Legal, says that married couple Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin tried to become foster parents for refugee children. It was filed against the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The couple, who both teach at Texas A&M University, applied to their local U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to become foster parents. However, their application was denied after they revealed they were a same-sex couple who did not “mirror the Holy Family,” Lambda Legal said.
“Being denied the opportunity to foster a child because we don’t ‘mirror the Holy Family’ — clearly code for being a same-sex couple — was hurtful and insulting to us,” Esplin said. “More than that, though, insisting on such a narrow, religious view of what a family must look like deprives these children of a nurturing, supportive home.”
HHS gives the conference, which is made up of all active and retired Catholic U.S. bishops, grants for the foster care program through the agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The couple reached out to HHS after the group denied their application. While the agency responded asking for the names of the people the couple met, they said they have not heard anything else.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charges that HHS and the conference are violating equal protection clauses under the Constitution by allowing the conference to impose a “religious test governing the provision of federal child welfare services.”
HHS said it had no comment on the lawsuit, and the USCCB did not immediately return requests for comment on the lawsuit.
