Cross-posted in the Rockford Register Star.

The Rockford Diocese recently announced Catholic Charities would end state-supported adoption and foster care programs. More than 50 employees will lose their jobs and approximately 350 children and families involved in the state foster care system will transition to other agencies.

Leaders of the diocese made the termination date for these services June 1 — the day that Illinois’ Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act took effect. The impression that one draws from the diocese’s statements is that the advent of civil unions drove Catholic Charities out of the business of foster care and adoption services.

This is misleading and disingenuous. Catholic Charities already refused to place children with lesbians and gays, and their refusal to place children with couples in civil unions is a continuation of that harmful policy.

Before the General Assembly passed the civil union law, Illinois child welfare officials, Gov. Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan had launched investigations into the practice of Catholic Charities (and other organizations) of excluding prospective adoptive gay parents.

The reason for this investigation is straightforward: These agencies elected to accept state money to carry out a government function — the licensing of foster and adoptive parents. Having chosen to voluntarily act in the state’s capacity, these agencies are expected to perform using the same standards as any other agency. Illinois law already required placements of children in state custody to be based on child welfare considerations, as opposed to the views of the agencies. Thus, denying foster or adoptive parents licenses based on their sexual orientation (or race and religion), already is prohibited by law.

Catholic Charities is free to practice in accordance with its religious teachings. But if it chooses to accept tax dollars to perform the state’s job of finding families for children in state custody, it may not use religious criteria — as opposed to child welfare criteria — in choosing families for them.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the announcement in Rockford is the suggestion that the church has been wronged. The damage is not to Catholic Charities or its religious views, which they are entitled to maintain. The harm is to the children denied loving families because of exclusionary policies. More than 15,000 children now are in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. These children come from homes where they have been abused or neglected.

Like every child, these 15,000 children deserve a safe, loving home where they are nurtured. That hope is undercut when qualified available families are needlessly excluded from consideration. Imagine a child who has been the victim of abuse or neglect being denied the opportunity to live with a loving aunt or uncle simply because the relative is lesbian or gay. That is not in the best interests of the child.

Research today shows that lesbians and gay men are just as qualified to parent and just as capable of providing safe and loving homes for children as their heterosexual counterparts. This is recognized by every major national organization devoted to children’s health and welfare, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Child Welfare League of America. Today more gay and lesbian couples choose to act as foster parents for children from DCFS, often taking care and giving love to the most difficult and most challenging cases.

An agency that places its own values above the interests of the children it previously accepted into its care does a great disservice and in some instance affirmative harm to those children.

Benjamin Wolf is the associate legal director for the ACLU of Illinois and chief counsel in litigation designed to improve Illinois child welfare system. John Knight is the director of the ACLU of Illinois LGBT Rights Project.

Don't miss the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin's great profile of ACLU of Illinois Legislative Director Mary Dixon (subscription required). Titled "Dixon keeps 'hope alive'" it describes her amazing work over 19 years of representing the ACLU in Springfield:

It was a veto session and while the timing may have been right, Mary E. Dixon wasn't convinced the bill to repeal the state's death penalty was going to survive.

"I was probably one of the naysayers of the group," the longtime legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois said of the coalition that pushed the repeal. "It was difficult for me to believe that [lawmakers would] do the right thing on this because of the difficulty, in part, politically of such a vote."

Dixon, however, must have kept her concerns to herself because those who lobbied the controversial bill alongside her said she was the one who brightened the group's spirits when things looked bleak.

"Everyone was discouraged when we were stuck on 58 votes for three weeks and she kept saying 'We can do this,' " said James R. Covington III, who, as the legislative director of the Illinois State Bar Association, worked closely with Dixon and several other lobbyists to further the efforts of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

"She kept everyone's heads above water," Covington said. "She kept hope alive."

Dixon's ability to stay positive is just one of the many reasons her colleagues say she has earned such a great reputation in her nearly 20 years as the ACLU's top lobbyist.

Aside from her work on the death penalty repeal and the civil unions bill, which the ACLU drafted, Dixon has played an integral role in the passage of numerous measures dealing with criminal justice, free speech, juvenile, privacy, reproductive rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.
...

John Peller, director of government relations for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, is one of the handful of lobbyists the ACLU regularly collaborates with.

In fact, she kind of trained him. Peller said over the years, Dixon has been nice enough to train about three generations of AIDS Foundation lobbyists.

"She's been doing this for so long and has that persuasive demeanor that speaks from a place of knowledge and confidence," he said. "I wish I could bottle Mary's skills."

They are currently lobbying for the passage of the sex education bill. He said she is knowledgeable, persistent and strategic, not to mention a pro at forming partnerships.

Covington agreed, saying that Dixon is like a good coach, who is "good at putting people in positions where they can make plays."

He also agreed with Peller on Dixon's persistence.

"I have hidden from her before," Covington said with a laugh, referring to a few instances in which he didn't want to team up with the ACLU on an issue. "She always tracks me down."

Read the whole thing.

In addition to our newly launched civil union website, civilunions.aclu-il.org, our own Jill Metz, President of the ACLU of Illinois Board of Directors, wrote a great article for 10thousandcouples.com explaining the ins and outs of the new civil unions law:

Four years before Illinois passed the Illinois Civil Union Act, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU), with contributions from Lambda Legal staff, drafted a civil union bill. As this civil union bill made its way through the Illinois Senate and House, the ACLU supplemented its lobby force of two staff lobbyists by hiring contract lobbyists. Polling on the question of people's support for civil unions was also paid for by the ACLU. As 2010 neared, the ACLU paid for patch-through calls from citizens to legislators and organized voter visits to legislative offices that were in swing districts because the ACLU wanted to make sure to counter the belief of some legislators that they did not have constituents in their districts interested in this legislation. The ACLU mobilized its 22,000 Illinois members through online Action Alerts about the legislation while working with other coalition members to successfully make Illinois one of the 13 states to provide protections and rights, as well as obligations, under the civil union law. On June 1, 2011, the Illinois Civil Union Act goes into effect.

Illinois’ extension of the right of equality and fairness to lesbian and gay couples through the Civil Union Act is complicated by the differences in the details of Illinois' state laws, which now apply to same-sex couples regardless of whether or not they have entered into a civil union.

This article discusses the details, and explains what a civil union is, and what we get from being unioned. I will also discuss my cautions about relying solely on the civil union law and what is still missing from full equality under the Civil Union Act.

Read the whole article.