St. Mary Catholic Parish
v.
Lisa Roy
We signed on this brief to support Colorado’s requirement that all state-funded Universal Preschool Program providers follow uniform nondiscrimination rules. Supporting the state against religious schools seeking to exclude four-year-olds over their parents’ sexual orientation or gender identity, the brief argues that taxpayer-funded discrimination violates the Fourteenth Amendment rights of children. Backed by empirical research, the AHA and our cosigners warn that turning away vulnerable children inflicts severe dignitary harm, creates lasting social stigma, and sets a dangerous precedent of licensing state-sponsored bias.
Petitioners’ requested exemption would harm children by producing exactly the unequal access to education that the Court has warned against. By excluding the children of LGBTQ+ parents, the policy would at best narrow, and at worst summarily deny, access to preschool education.