The US Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbied against the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, which would create a national suicide prevention hotline, in 2019 because it included LGBTQ+ resources.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, the bill allocated funding to LGBTQ+ suicide prevention programs in addition to creating a national, toll-free suicide hotline. The organization, an assembly of Catholic leadership in the US, opposed the legislation behind the scenes and attempted to prevent it from passing.
But it wasn’t the first time the USCCB opposed legislation that expanded the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
LGBTQ Nation reported the USCCB used the same logic to oppose the 2013 Violence Against Women Act, which would provide more funding to prosecuting cases of violence against women.
“All persons must be protected from violence, but codifying the classifications ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ as contained in S. 47 is problematic,” the organization wrote in a statement about the Violence Against Women Act.
“These two classifications are unnecessary to establish the just protections due to all persons. They undermine the meaning and importance of sexual difference.”
Most recently, the USCCB spoke out against the 2021 Equality Act, which expands protections for LGBTQ+ people from workplace discrimination.
The organization stood against the policy supported across party lines and by President Joe Biden because it “dismiss[es] sexual difference and falsely presenting ‘gender’ as only a social construct” by supporting transgender rights, according to a statement.
“The bill is well-intentioned but ultimately misguided,” the USCCB wrote. “The Equality Act discriminates against people of faith, threatens unborn life, and undermines the common good.”
