When spouses Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin wanted to become foster parents for a refugee child, they were told by the child services agency that they could not apply because their family structure did not “mirror the Holy Family.” Now, they’re suing the agency’s parent organization, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and the funder of its program to place refugee children, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Marouf and Esplin have been married for nearly three years. Marouf is a Professor of Law and Director of Texas A&M’s Immigrant Rights Clinic, and Esplin is an Assistant Professor of Bioethics at Texas A&M College of Medicine, says Lambda Legal, which filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the couple. The case filing itself adds, “The couple’s wedding ceremony joyfully wove together customs from their diverse backgrounds and cultures—Fatma being raised Muslim and Bryn, Mormon. The couple was eager to bring a child into their family.” They tried through reproductive technology, but after several attempts were unsuccessful, they began considering other options.
Because of Marouf’s work with refugee children and unaccompanied minors at the Immigrant Rights Clinic, the chief executive officer of Catholic Charities Fort Worth (CCFW) sent her a personal e-mail, “proposing a stronger relationship between CCFW and Fatma’s clinic,” says the case filing. He invited her to tour CCFW’s facility, writing that “[i]t would be an honor to host you!” Marouf took the tour and learned about CCFW’s work with unaccompanied refugee children.
This experience motivated Marouf and Esplin to want to become foster parents for a refugee child. They were even fine with the idea of fostering an older child, although many prospective foster parents prefer younger children.
During their first interview, however, they revealed they were same-sex spouses, and were then told by CCFW’s director of international foster care that they could not apply because their family structure did not “mirror the Holy Family.” When Fatma then asked if there were LGBT refugee children in their care, because they might qualify for asylum, the director stated that none of the 700 or so children in their care were LGBT—which seems statistically unlikely, especially with older children (more likely to have expressed their identities) in the mix.
Later that day, Fatma emailed HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to say that CCFW had discriminated against them. ORR responded two months later to ask for the names of the officials they met with, but the women have heard nothing since, Lambda relates.
“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. 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,” said Esplin in a statement.
“Refugee children have been through enough trauma to last a lifetime,” Marouf said. “They need love, stability, and support, which Bryn and I have in abundance. But in discriminating against us, the agency put their religious views of LGBT people above what is best for the kids in their care.”
Here’s why the federal government is at fault here, too. USCCB receives millions of dollars of taxpayer money through grants from HHS’ ORR to assist with the federal government’s Unaccompanied Refugee Minors and Unaccompanied Alien Child programs. With this money, USCCB “is responsible for identifying eligible children in need of services, and providing foster care services for these children, including placement in homes that serve their best interests,” says Lambda. USCCB performs these federal child welfare services through its affiliates, such as CCFW.
USCCB, however, is open about denying such services to some people based on its religious beliefs. Its website “openly advocates against parenting of children by same-sex couples,” says the filing. The lawsuit therefore claims that “HHS and USCCB are violating the Establishment, Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution by allowing USCCB to impose a religious test governing the provision of federal child welfare services,” says Lambda.
The filing details the harm this creates for the refugee children:
By working to ensure that none of the children for which they are responsible are placed in homes of same-sex spouses based on USCCB’s religious beliefs, USCCB and its sub-grantees not only discriminate against same-sex spouses, but also effectively erase the non-Catholic identities and beliefs of many of the unaccompanied refugee children for which they are responsible. This conduct potentially increases those children’s alienation and vulnerability, while denying them access to loving homes that could serve them best—all at federal taxpayers’ expense.
By working to ensure that none of the children for which they are responsible be placed in homes of same-sex spouses based on USCCB’s religious beliefs, USCCB and its sub-grantees also disserve and demean the youth for which they are responsible who are LGBT, stigmatizing them as less deserving and worthy of respect than others, and sending them the message that, when they grow up to form families of their own, they and their families will not have a right to equal treatment in the provision of government services.
The case shows that LGBTQ advocates are coming out swinging against an HHS that is increasingly threatening to LGBTQ people and families, including prospective foster and adoptive parents—all moves that put children at risk. Watch Marouf and Esplin tell their story below.