Irish Catholic marriage counseling services told to accept LGBT couples or lose funding
English: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) pride flag under a "No" symbol. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Catholic marriage and family counseling agencies in Ireland are being told they must accept LGBT -identifying clients, otherwise they risk losing government funding. “The government is threatening to withdraw millions of euros of public funding ,” reports UK ’s The Times , “unless the counselling services agree to change their longstanding policy of excluding same-sex couples from their services on religious grounds.” The counseling service administered by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference ( ICBC ) received about €1.5 million during 2016, one-quarter of the total €6 million Department of Children and Youth Affairs budget for such services. The ICBC counseling group Accord may have to shutter its doors because government funding may dry up if it follows Catholic teaching and refuses to accept the validity of LGBT relationships. The Catholi