Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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Imagine a Meals on Wheels program refusing to deliver food to a disabled elderly woman because she is Jewish. Imagine a married couple being told their preschooler would no longer receive federally funded child care services because the family is Muslim. Imagine a foster care agency refusing to help a child because he identifies as homosexual.
All of these cruel scenarios could become reality if President Donald Trump has his way.
The Trump administration issued a proposed order this month that would eliminate protections against discrimination in grants distributed to thousands of community agencies by the Department of Health and Human Services. The order would apply to a huge range of programs affecting Americans of all ages — substance abuse treatment, HIV prevention, nutritional programs, early child care and child welfare, to name a handful.
The administration claims the rule is necessary to protect religious freedom, but its real effect would be to punish Americans who happen to be non-Christians and members of the LGBTQ community.
This action is an abomination — an affront to America’s values of fairness and equality.
It’s appalling too in that it is clearly a self-serving move by Trump to court evangelical Christian voters who are crucial for his re-election.
Why the evangelical community would support such an un-Christian proposal is mystifying. What would Jesus do, indeed.
Let’s be clear to Christians or any other American who may be supporting such a move — it would hurt people. And it would hurt them badly.
Not only would it add to the discrimination that some communities of Americans experience every day, it would create the very real possibility of foster children being institutionalized as opposed to being placed in loving homes.
With 400,000 kids in the U.S. foster care system, including 114,000 who need to be adopted because it is unsafe to return to their families, the nation needs all the suitable homes it can find for these kids. With statistics showing that same-sex couples are more likely than heterosexual couples to adopt children or welcome foster kids into their homes, allowing agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ couples is hateful to them and harmful to children in need of care.
But that’s Trump’s calling card — cruelty. He’s shown it toward the LGBTQ community in a number of ways, including:
• Rescinding an Obama-era advisory urging schools to let students use bathrooms that corresponded with their gender identity.
• Banning transgender individuals from serving in the military.
• Issuing a rule allowing health care providers to refuse care on the basis of sexual orientation. Fortunately, the courts stepped in on that barbaric action, with a federal judge in New York striking it down this month.
On the proposed HHS rule, the good news is that there’s time for Americans to voice their opposition to it and do their part to derail it.
The proposal is subject to a 30-day public comment period that runs through Dec. 19. To comment, visit tinyurl.com/hhs-rule-comment.
Las Vegas, in this situation, waiting for the 2020 election isn’t an option. Action is needed immediately to keep Trump from doing more harm.
