Denver Archdiocese Files Lawsuit Against Colorado’s Pre-K Program over LGBTQ+ Rules

U.S. activists opposed to LGBTQ+ equality have turned to increasingly-aggressive legal tactics in their effort to stop equality, largely due to the Supreme Court’s friendliness to such activists’ religious liberty claims.

In a series of posts this week, Bondings 2.0 will cover some of the LGBTQ-focused court cases that involve Catholics. Today’s post examines a new lawsuit involving the Archdiocese of Denver and non-discrimination protections.

The archdiocese and two parishes recently sued the state of Colorado after a new Universal Pre-Kindergarten program required participating schools to adhere to state non-discrimination protections, which include sexual orientation and gender identity. According to The Denver Post, Catholic officials use religious liberty grounds to argue they should be able to participate in the program, but not obligated to abide by the non-discrimination protections:

“The Denver Archdiocese, St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton and St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Lakewood filed suit against Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, and Dawn Odean, director of Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program, on Wednesday. . .

“The Denver Archdiocese argues in the lawsuit that the state has ‘cornered the market’ for preschool services by providing universal funding and any preschool providers who don’t participate will be ‘severely disadvantaged’ and forced to charge ‘significantly’ higher fees, disadvantaging low-income families whose children attend Archdiocesan schools.

“The lawsuit said enrolling children with gay parents into an Archdiocesan school ‘is likely to lead to intractable conflicts’ because a ‘Catholic school cannot treat a same-sex couple as a family equivalent to the natural family without compromising its mission and Catholic identity.'”

The Archdiocese of Denver and its archbishop, Samuel Aquila, have strong records opposed to LGBTQ+ equality. Relevant to this lawsuit, last year Aquila released a policy for Catholic schools that banned transgender students, suggested LGBTQ+ parents, employees, or even allies could be excluded or fired, and imposed other restrictions. Previously, Aquila compared same-gender marriages to bestiality, opposed the Equality Act, blamed gay priests for clergy sexual abuse, and supported conversion therapy.

The archdiocese and parishes are being represented by the right-wing legal group, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. A similar lawsuit has been filed by another Christian preschool, reported Colorado Newsline.

The office of Governor Jared Polis, who is gay, has defended the pre-K program and its non-discrimination protections, which are designed to ensure that government-funded benefits are available to everyone. The office said in a statement, in part per 9 News:

“‘While it’s unfortunate to see different groups of adults attempting to co-opt preschool for themselves, perhaps because they want to not allow gay parents to send their kids to preschool, or they want to favor school district programs over community-based early childhood centers, the voters were clear on their support for parent choice and a universal, mixed delivery system that is independently run, that doesn’t discriminate against anyone and offers free preschool to every child no matter who their parents are.'”

Megan Schrader, editor of The Denver Post’s opinions page and a Catholic, had a sharper critique of Denver church official’s lawsuit, saying Aquila’s move “has no legal basis, no moral standing, and no foundation in the teachings of Jesus Christ” and “is also the kind of exclusion and oppression that Jesus abhorred during his time on Earth.” Schrader wrote:

“We all recognize the bold hypocrisy coming from a church that for decades refused to kick priests out of schools despite their sexual abuse of children being common knowledge among the dioceses. This lawsuit makes clear that in the eyes of the church, there is one sin held above all others — homosexuality. . .

“Filing a lawsuit so you can refuse to teach 4 and 5-year-olds whose parents are gay is the exact opposite of Aquila’s efforts to ‘radically love those who disagree with us.’ Like many Catholics, I disagree with segments of the church’s teachings and its leadership, but no one has ever told me my presence in the church or the presence of my children threatens ‘compromising its mission and Catholic identity.’ In fact, the priests I have known have always welcomed difficult questions and discussions and disagreements around faith.

“Targeting the most innocent among us for exclusion is sowing division and spreading hate. If preschoolers with gay parents aren’t welcome in the church, then all of us sinners should question if we are welcome in the church, either.”

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, August 30, 2023