New Obama bias rule denounced

President Barack Obama has issued a new rule forbidding agencies that contract with the federal Government from discriminating against gays and lesbians in their hiring practices, writes Michael Sean Winters.

The rule contains no exemptions for religious employers, but reiterates a 2002 rule enacted by President George W. Bush that allows religious organisations to give preferential treatment to co-religionists in hiring decisions.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) denounced the rule as “unprecedented and extreme” and pledged opposition. “In the name of forbidding discrimination, this implements discrimination,” the statement read. “It lends the economic power of the Government to a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent. As a result, the order will exclude federal contractors precisely on the basis of their religious beliefs.”

Archbishop William Lori, chairman of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Richard J. Malone, chairman of the Family Life Committee, signed the statement.