Former members of Amy Coney Barrettβs secretive faith group, the People of Praise, are calling on the US supreme court justice to recuse herself from an upcoming case involving gay rights, saying Barrettβs continued affiliation with the Christian group means she has participated in discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people.Amy Coney Barrett urged to step away from gay rights case because of faith affiliation
The former members are part of a network of βsurvivorsβ of the controversial charismatic group who say Barrettβs βlifelong and continuedβ membership in the People of Praise make her too biased to fairly adjudicate an upcoming case that will decide whether private business owners have a right to decline services to potential clients based on their sexual orientation.
They point to Barrettβs former role on the board of Trinity Schools Inc, a private group of Christian schools that is affiliated with the People of Praise and, in effect, barred children of same-sex parents from attending the school.
A faculty guide published in 2015, the year Barrett joined the board, said βblatant sexual immoralityβ β which the guide said included βhomosexual actsβ β had βno place in the culture of Trinity Schoolsβ. The discriminatory policies were in place before and after Barrett joined.
The schoolsβ attitude, the former People of Praise members said, reflect the Christian groupβs staunchly anti-gay beliefs and adherence to traditional family values, including β they say β expelling or ostracizing members of the People of Praise βcommunityβ who came out as gay later in life or their gay children.
βI donβt believe that someone in her position, who is a member of this group, could put those biases aside, especially in a decision like the one coming up,β said Maura Sullivan, a 46-year-old who was raised in the People of Praise community in South Bend, Indiana. Sullivan identifies as bisexual and recalls coming out to her parents, who were members of the People of Praise, when she was 19.
βThey decided that I wasnβt allowed to be around my sister, who was 13 at the time, without them around, because I could βinfluenceβ her in bad ways. Stuff like that. So I had a tenuous relationship with my family,β she said. βTo be cut off from my family was the ultimate loss of community.β Sullivan and her parents, who are no longer members of the faith group, have since repaired their relationship, she said.
Questions about the People of Praiseβs attitude toward LGBTQ+ members and their families, and Trinity Schoolsβ policies, have resurfaced because the supreme court will hear oral arguments on 5 December in the case of 303 Creative LLC v Elenis.
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Just like we'll never see Clarence Thomas recuse himself from any ruling on January 6 β¦ despite his wife being implicated in same,