GAY TRUTH

Women’s shelters must admit men who say they are “transgender” if they receive federal funding, according to a new regulation imposed by the Obama administration . The administration stripped out a provision that would allow shelters to deny a biological male access to the women’s facilities, under narrow circumstances, if they felt it would endanger women’s “health and safety.” The requirement applies to federally funded faith-based shelters and homeless facilities, as well. “Today, we take another important step to ensure full acceptance of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in the programs HUD supports,” said Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro on Tuesday when the rule, originally proposed last October , was finalized. The final rule erased a measure that would have let shelters, which often protect women and children from their abusers, refuse to house a man in a women’s shelter based on safety concerns on a “case-by-case basis.”

Image by joseph a via Flickr January 31, 2012 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - The federal government will publish regulations next month requiring all religious groups involved in government-assisted housing facilities to accept homosexual couples and transgender individuals - a change effected in part by including homosexual couples in the rule’s definition of the word “family.” The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a  new rule  on Thursday that defines “family” as at least two people living together “regardless of marital status, or actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity ,” in addition to the surviving partners of AIDS victims who had previously been housed under HUD’s AIDS housing program. “HUD’s proposed rule clarifies that families, otherwise eligible for HUD programs, may not be excluded because one or more members of the family may be an LGBT individual, have an LGBT relationship, or be perceived to be such an individual or in suc

Recognizing “sexual orientation” and “ gender identity ” as grounds for non-discrimination in new federal housing regulations could require faith-based groups to violate their religious beliefs, warned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) last week. The new regulations from the Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ) would require that organizations participating in HUD programs not discriminate on these two grounds. But the regulations could “force” faith-based organizations to violate their religious beliefs by requiring – as a condition for HUD funds – that they make housing available to homosexual or unmarried couples, wrote USCCB General Counsel Anthony R. Picarello, Jr. and Associate General Counsel Michael F. Moses in a March 25th letter. “By this, we do not mean that any person should be denied housing,” the attorneys stressed. “Making decisions about  shared  housing, however, is another matter.” “Particularly here, faith-based and other organiz