The House appropriations committee added the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, which would allow discrimination in foster care and adoption services based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, marital status and more, to the Labor and Health and Human Services appropriations bill today.  The bill would reduce child welfare funding to states that do not allow such discrimination.  The committee vote to add the language was 29-23, largely along party lines, with Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA) crossing party lines to [...]

Last week, Governor Henry McMaster signed into law H. 4950, a 500 page budget bill that sneakily included a small paragraph (Paragraph 38.29) with discriminatory language that would allow state funded "faith-based" adoption agencies to turn away qualified South Carolinians seeking to care for a child in need, including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection. The proviso [...]

In Monday’s Supreme Court decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, baker Jack Phillips won absolution from legal liability for refusing to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple. On the surface, the 7-2 decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, appears to not be the disaster that many LGBTQ rights advocates had feared. It is limited to the specific facts of this case, where the majority found that statements of some commissioners, along with the commission’s [...]

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued rulings on several cases.  However, a ruling on the Masterpiece Cajeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was not one of the rulings announced.  The LGBT community is watching carefully for how the nations highest court will rule and is one that will shape the future of LGBT equality in the United States. The next possible day for a ruling will be Monday, June 4th. The owner of a bakery called [...]