The Justice Department has offered its full-throated support to religious schools that want to discriminate against LGBTQ students. According to The Washington Post, the Biden administration confirmed in a Tuesday court filing that it will “vigorously” defend a religious exemption from federal civil-rights law that permits religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students—even if those schools receive federal funding. The filing said that Education Department and Christian schools “share the same ‘ultimate objective’… namely, to uphold the Religious Exemption as it is currently applied.” The filing has shocked LGBTQ advocates—Paul Carlos Southwick, director of the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, told the Post: “The government is now aligning itself with anti-LGBTQ hate in order to vigorously defend an exemption that everyone knows causes severe harm to LGBTQ students using taxpayer money.” Southwick said the religious exemption leaves students at risk of conversion therapy and expulsion, as well as “shame, fear, anxiety, and loneliness.”
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