Current Affairs

US Catholic Bishops: Obama’s anti-discrimination measure is ‘extreme and unprecedented’

Jul 25 2014
Written by Joseph McCormick

A committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) this week attacked US President Barack Obama for signing an executive order banning anti-LGBT discrimination in the workplace of federal contractors.

The US President earlier this week signed the order in a White House ceremony, banning discrimination against LGBT people by employers, by amending two existing anti-sexism orders to protect gender identity and sexuality.

The new order only applies to federal contractors, unlike the broader Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which remains stalled in the House of Representatives.

It has been praised by some for its lack of a religious freedom exemption, which is present in the current version of ENDA.

The Ad Hoc Committee for the USCCB decried the decision, stating that it should be opposed, claiming that in tackling anti-LGBT discrimination, Christians will be discriminated against.

“Today’s executive order is unprecedented and extreme and should be opposed,” said Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo. “In the name of forbidding discrimination, this order implements discrimination.”

“With the stroke of a pen, it lends the economic power of the federal government to a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent,” they continued. “As a result, the order will exclude federal contractors precisely on the basis of their religious beliefs.”