Andrew Ogilvie, a Los Angeles-based board member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, attended the recent Creating Change conference in Dallas with his husband, Cary Davidson, chair of the board of Equality California. At a recent reception in West Hollywood, we chatted about how individuals don’t need to wait to be rallied by organizations – if they see a need, they just step up and pitch in. As an illustration, Andrew told the story of one Creating Change session where two gay Iraqis explained how they had asylum – but how badly they were being treated by Catholic Charities. A bunch of people immediately asked how they could help.
But the story also raised another significant, but hidden issue – the involvement of antigay faith-based institutions such as Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army in doing aid work through government contracts – in 1991 60% of the Catholic Charities’ budget came from government contracts. But, as Andrew’s story shows – and recent history points out (here, here and here) – Catholic Charities is a powerful force with apparently little governmental oversight as to how their religious views impact services to LGBT people and people with HIV/AIDS.
Please click inside for more on Catholic Charities and Andrew’s story.
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