In a Letter to the Editor in the Tribune Tuesday, the ACLU of Illinois speaks out against the refusal of religious foster care agencies to license gay foster parents in accordance with Illinois anti-discrimination laws.

Research has shown that lesbians and gays are just as qualified to parent and just as capable of providing safe and loving homes for children as their heterosexual counterparts. Consistent with those findings, Illinois has long licensed lesbian and gay adults as foster parents if, like other applicants, they otherwise satisfy the criteria for licensure.

An excellent Tribune article earlier this month revealed that Illinois child welfare officials, working with Gov. Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan, are now investigating whether religious agencies that receive public funds to license foster parents are breaking anti-discrimination laws if they turn away gay parents based on their sexual orientation.

McHenry County Sheriff's Deputies have been mislabeling Hispanics as white, according to a lawsuit that also accuses deputies of targeting Hispanics and covering up the practice, according to a story in the Tribune Monday.

A Tribune analysis found that more than 1,000 other people likely were also mislabeled. Police are supposed to accurately log races of drivers they stop so the state can monitor whether departments may be targeting minorities. Mislabeling them could hide racial profiling.

In examining department, state and court data from 2004 through 2009, the Tribune's investigation indicated:

•The problem grew worse each year. By 2009, the statistical analysis showed, 1 in 3 Hispanics cited by deputies likely were mislabeled as white or not included in department data reported to the state.

•If mislabeling and underreporting are taken into account, the department's official rate of minority stops would have towered over its Chicago-area peers rather than appearing average.

•Department brass repeatedly missed warning signs of potential problems, even after a deputy complained that some peers targeted Hispanics.

Civil rights advocates suspect mislabeling is more than coincidence.

"It raises a very hard question whether officers are trying to avoid accountability," said Adam Schwartz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

DNA is different than a simple fingerprint. DNA testing discloses private health information about an individual and can be used to make predictions about that person’s physical and mental health. Employers and insurance companies might in the future use this information in a discriminatory fashion.

For this reason, the ACLU of Illinois long has opposed the forced collection of DNA from persons arrested in Illinois. Currently, DNA is collected from persons who are convicted of a crime – and that is where the line should be drawn.

Arrests reflect only one police officer’s finding of probable cause – it is not proof of guilt. Current law recognizes this distinction since Illinois employers cannot discriminate based on arrest records. Allowing DNA collection on arrest will build massive personal databases about individuals in Illinois, databases that will be disproportionately populated by ethnic minorities who, history shows, are far more likely to be arrested, often wrongfully.

Read more about HB 3238.