Kentucky and Baptist foster care agency settle dispute over LGBTQ language

Kentucky has finalized its contract with a Baptist-affiliated foster care and adoption agency after months of dispute over whether to include language that expressly bans LGBTQ discrimination, the state announced Friday.

The agreed-upon contract between the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services and Sunrise Children’s Services does not include language proposed by Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration that sought to bar the religiously-affiliated agency from discriminating against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity who seek its services.

Instead, the contract requires Sunrise to “refer any service applicants [who] identify as LGBTQ . . . to another provider capable of providing the same services [and] that is in good standing” with the cabinet, according to the language.

The state and Sunrise reached their agreement on Thursday, a cabinet spokesperson said. Since the spring, the two have been been roiled in a protracted dispute over whether a provision barring LGBTQ discrimination should be part of their agreed-upon contract language. Sunrise, a nonprofit affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, has argued that a clause of that nature would infringe on the organization’s deeply-held religious belief that homosexuality is a sin. The state has argued that such language was previously required by law and omitting it would allow discrimination against LGBTQ people.

The state backed off its position last month, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city of Philadelphia could not refuse to award a Catholic adoption agency a contract over its refusal to work with same-sex couples. Citing that high court decision, Kentucky Republican leaders called on the cabinet to follow suit with Sunrise.

The cabinet then modified its proposed language and omitted explicit anti-discrimination protections. Earlier this month, Beshear criticized Sunrise when the agency volleyed back with more contract requests.

“We were told . . . that if we eliminated this language that we were worried violates federal law and now we know it doesn’t, that they’d sign the contract and accept services for kids,” Beshear said on July 1. “That language no longer appears in the contract they’ve been offered. This isn’t a chance to negotiate for more. You’ve gotten what you asked for.”

The new contracts, which run through June of 2022 “are what Sunrise had been requesting since the Spring of 2020 and it is grateful that the commonwealth has decided to follow the law after more than a year of uncertainty,” said John Sheller, an attorney for Sunrise.

Dale Suttles, president of Sunrise, said he was pleased to have finally reached an agreement with the state.

“We’re glad we can do what we do best and that’s serve kids,” he said. “We just want to move forward and get back to the business of helping Kentucky’s needy.”