[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 95 (Tuesday, July 10, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1915
        SALVATION ARMY DISCRIMINATING AGAINST GAYS AND LESBIANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pence). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening because of 
a shocking story that appeared on the front page of the Washington Post 
this morning about a secret deal between, of all people, of all 
organizations, the Salvation Army, to support charitable choice in 
exchange for the issuance of a White House regulation, OMB Circular No. 
A-102, that would deny assistance to States or localities that require 
religious charities to adhere to their nondiscrimination laws as they 
apply to gay men and women. Now, of course, these nondiscrimination 
laws have to do with the activities of these religious charities that 
do not relate to their religions.
  A political deal should be beneath the dignity of the Salvation Army, 
given its long Christian heritage, not to mention the President of the 
United States. It is a deal to discriminate under the table.
  According to the lead document, this cannot be done in the 
legislative process very easily, so they had to do it by regulation. 
Charitable choice already contains a fatal flaw, because, as put 
forward by the administration, it would allow a religious organization 
to discriminate using government money by requiring people it hires to 
do a government task to be of their religion. That is a direct 
violation of Title VI and of the Constitution of the United States.
  I am a former Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I 
strongly support an exemption in the law that I administered, Title 
VII, which allows a religious denomination an exemption to the 
antidiscrimination law in hiring people of their own religion with 
their own money. But we cannot give the Baptists and the Lutherans and 
the Catholics and the Jews our money and say you can discriminate when 
you perform services in our name. That is already a problem with the 
bill.
  But in order to make it perfectly clear, in case that does not 
survive, that at least people who are gay and lesbian should not be 
discriminated against, this would be done by regulation.
  Mr. Speaker, why the Salvation Army would engage in this deal is 
really perplexing. The Salvation Army already gets $300 million in 
funds from the Federal Government to do their wonderful work. They get 
it because they abide by government regulations that say when you use 
government money, you cannot proselytize, you cannot engage in 
religion, because this is America, and this is what we have stood for, 
for everybody. So they already get money, just like Catholic charities 
and just like Lutheran charities and just like Jewish charities all get 
money, and they have accepted it, and I hope they will continue to get 
it on the basis that everybody else who does the government's work 
accepts it, and that is as long as we are doing the government's work, 
then your money is the public money, and we cannot discriminate against 
anybody when giving those services.
  This body has already a long history of discriminating against gays 
and lesbians in the District of Columbia, because whenever there is 
anything in our law that allows equal protection for people of a 
different sexual orientation, then somebody hops up here and tries, and 
often succeeds, in overturning the law. Now we are trying to do to do 
what you do to the District of Columbia to hundreds of localities and 
States in the United States.
  I hope everybody understands what it feels like to intrude in the 
affairs of local jurisdictions in a federalist society, a society where 
we say, look, different strokes for different folks. Some of us behave 
one way with respect to our laws, others another way. Some people have 
chosen to protect gay men and lesbians against discrimination, and I 
say God bless them. In the 21st century we should not be discriminating 
against any Americans based on a characteristic that has nothing to do 
with performance. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with 
performance, and the last people, the last organizations who should be 
engaged in such discrimination are organizations that go by the name 
``Christian,'' and the Salvation Army should be ashamed of itself that 
it has been caught red-handed on the front page of the Washington Post 
in the column where you put war and peace. Thank God that they were 
exposed.

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