A child has been denied entrance into an Episcopal school in Bedford because her parents are married lesbians.
Jill and Tracy Harrison, lesbians married in 2006 in Canada, applied to enroll their daughter into St. Vincent's School, in June.
Jill gave birth to Olivia, thanks to a sperm donor. On the application, they crossed out the word father on the application and wrote mother and put Tracy's name on that line. Jill was written on the mother line.
They attended the school's parent night on Tuesday, and now, just a few days before school starts Monday, the school is denying their daughter Olivia enrollment into the school because her parents are lesbians, the women said.
"I am horribly disappointed. In fact, we are in the 21st century and we are still dealing with this issue. We should just move on. Denying my daughter education based on who I end up sleeping with at the end of the day makes me furious," said Jill.
"It's hard to believe that a place that's supposed to take in and teach children about God and the basics of religion would actually discriminate against her because of who we are," said Tracy.
Though the school's handbook and website say that the school is non-discriminatory as to race, color, religion and national or ethnic origin, it doesn't stipulate that they won't discriminate based on the sexual orientation of a child's parents.
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"We are a church affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America, and it is their policy that we don't provide services to individuals or families that do not behave properly. We're going off our canons that say 'The Anglican Church in North America affirms our Lord's teaching that the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong of one man and one woman," said Kenneth Monk, head of the school.
The Harrison's have been refunded their application fee of $100. They said they found a non-religious school for Olivia to attend and made sure the school was okay with same-sex parents.
Some reports referred to the school as St. Vincent's Episcopal School. Even though the sign at the church says Episcopal, they said they have parted with that church and are now Anglican. The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth confirmed this in a press release Saturday afternoon, stating the church has been deposed by the Episocpal church. The diocese says they have non-discrimination admission policies at all their schools.
