Antidiscrimination Bill Would Undermine Catholic and Other Religious Schools in Maryland, Opponents Say| National Catholic Register

A measure meant to curb discrimination in education is drawing opposition from advocates for religious schools in Maryland who say it might open them up to government intrusion and costly legal attacks over their faith-based teachings, including on gender identity and sexual orientation. 

The public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops is among those opposing the bill. 

Under a current state statute enacted in July 2022, students and parents at private schools (including religious schools) already can bring discrimination complaints to the state superintendent of education on the basis of 11 protected classes, including race, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. 

But under proposed new legislation, Maryland House Bill 649, the state’s Commission on Civil Rights would be empowered to enforce the state’s antidiscrimination policies against private schools. In addition, the measure would allow students and parents to sue private schools in state courts, with no limit on damages. 

Supporters of the bill describe it as necessary to deal with what they describe as poor treatment that some students get at certain private schools just because of who they are. But opponents say the legislation would open religious schools to unwarranted and unconstitutional scrutiny by government bureaucrats and the courts.  

Religious teachings on gender identity and same-sex attraction are among the concerns of some religious schools, said Jonathan Alexandre, legislative counsel for the Maryland Family Institute, which opposes the bill.  

Currently, he told the Register, when disputes come up over school policies, parents and administrators at religious schools either work them out in house or the parents enroll their children elsewhere, without the government getting involved.  

“It never makes the news because what happens is if the parents agree with the school, they work with the school. If the parents disagree with the school, they find a better fit for their child,” Alexandre said.  

“We see this as a direct threat to every private religious school in the state of Maryland. Now they’re going to have to go to court and fight these lawsuits just to be able to maintain their religious identity,” Alexandre said.  

The Catholic Church teaches that same-sex attraction is “objectively disordered” and rejects the idea that sex can be changed or separated from gender, although it also says people identifying as homosexual or transgender must be treated with respect, sensitivity and compassion. 

The Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops in public policy matters, opposes the bill, saying it is “deeply concerned” that if the bill becomes law, Catholic and other religious schools “would have their decisions judged by a State commission that will not respect or consider the sincerely held religious beliefs of the school or, accordingly, their constitutional rights.”  

“We are further concerned that this legislation will open the door to disaffected parents or students to pursue lengthy legal action against a school or institution out of malice. Even if and when such actions are determined to be baseless, the cost in time, stress, reputation and resources to our schools may be significant and damaging,” the Maryland Catholic Conference said in written testimony to a legislative committee dated Feb. 24. 

About 50,000 students attend Catholic schools in Maryland, which is divided among the Archdiocese of Baltimore; the Archdiocese of Washington (which includes five counties in southern and central Maryland); and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware (which includes nine counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland).  

Maryland’s state government currently provides assistance to secular and religious private schools, including secular textbooks and computer hardware and software. State financial scholarships for secular and religious private schools are also available for students from families whose incomes are low enough to qualify. About 70 Catholic schools in the state take part in the program.  

But that state assistance shouldn’t affect the ability of religious schools to act on their religion, the Maryland Catholic Conference said, noting that in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts “have ruled specifically that faith-based schools may not be forced to choose between the tenets of their faith and state benefits, including funding.”  

Supporters of the legislation present it differently.  

Cleveland L. Horton II, executive director of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, told a legislative committee in February that the bill stems in part from his experiences with an unnamed private school in the state that his son attended about 10 years ago.  

He said white students at the predominately white school harassed several Black male students, including his son, adding that administrators subsequently treated the Black students and their parents poorly. Black parents with children at other private schools told him comparable stories, he said. But even though he was (and remains) an administrator at a state agency that enforces civil rights, he said he found that there was no state remedy.  

“There was no state avenue for us to enforce or address the issues that these students were facing day in and day out,” Horton said Feb. 24 during a legislative committee hearing before the Maryland House’s Government, Labor, and Elections Committee in February. 

Horton told the Register last week that the bill provides the same protections for religious schools that they currently have in Maryland state law. 

“The bill does not require religious schools to abandon or compromise their religious identity. Constitutional protections for religious freedom remain firmly in place,” Horton told the Register.  

“What it does require is that, when operating as educational institutions serving the public, schools adhere to basic, long-standing civil-rights protections against discrimination. This is not ‘government dictating faith,’ but, rather, government fulfilling its duty to ensure equal protection under the law,” Horton said. “Courts have consistently recognized that religious liberty and antidiscrimination laws can — and must — coexist.”  

But opponents of the bill say it doesn’t protect religious schools from claims based on gender identity or sexual orientation. 

Alexandre, of the Maryland Family Institute, said he sees trouble ahead for religious schools in Maryland if the bill passes.  

“If it seems like excessive government entanglement, it’s because that’s what it is. It’s government dictating what faith institutions do.  Government has no business dictating the internal affairs of a religious institution,” Alexandre said.  

The bill is supported by several civil-rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.  

The Maryland House of Delegates approved the current bill, 100-35, on March 23. A hearing before the Maryland Senate’s Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, April 2.