Faith-based funding turns blind eye to anti-gay bias

President Bush announced last week the creation of a new office within the Department of Homeland Security - this one is charged with making it easier for "faith-based and other community organizations" to obtain federal funding to provide "social and community services." But while many gay organizations provide such services, there is little expectation among them that the president's new Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives office is going to help them.

"In our experience, very little" federal funding under Bush's five-year-old program is going to gay groups that provide social and community services, said Lorri L. Jean, chief executive director of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. The Gay & Lesbian Center, the largest of its kind in the country, provides a wide range of social and community services - including HIV-related medical services, shelter for homeless youth, and drug and alcohol recovery programs. But Jean says the Center lost a $200,000 grant and that "inside sources told us was directly a result of the faith-based initiatives."

According to President Bush, in a March 9 speech before the Second White House Conference on the Faith-based and Community Initiative, the new Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives will "incorporate faith-based and other community organizations in Department programs and initiatives to the greatest extent possible." It will also "propose the development of innovative pilot and demonstration programs to increase the participation of faith-based and other community organizations in Federal as well as State and local initiatives."

Announcements such as this are getting very little media attention. Last month, when the president signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, most reports focused on its aim to cut the country's $1.3 trillion deficit by $40 billion of cuts in programs for seniors, citizens with low incomes, and students. But also in that bill was a provision to extend Bush's faith-based initiative another five years and to expand it to two new programs - on "healthy marriage" and "responsible fatherhood."

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