Catholic schools sued to exclude LGBTQ+ families but still get state money. A judge shut them down.https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/10/catholic-schools-sued-to-exclude-lgbtq-families-but-still-get-state-money-a-judge-shut-them-down/ 🔗John Russell (1 Oct 2025)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in favor of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood this week in a lawsuit over whether the state can deny funding to Catholic preschools that want to discriminate against LGBTQ+ parents.
As Courthouse News reports, the decision upholds a lower court's ruling that the state did not violate the schools' rights by requiring them to adhere to Colorado's nondiscrimination laws in order to receive funding through its Universal Preschool Program.
Approved by voters in 2020, the program requires all participating preschool providers to "provide eligible children an equal opportunity to enroll and receive services regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, lack of housing, income level, or disability, as such characteristics and circumstances apply to the child or the child's family," per Colorado law.
But in August 2023, the Archdiocese of Denver sued the program on behalf of two Colorado parishes, St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton and St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Lakewood. The lawsuit argued that the nondiscrimination requirement directly conflicted with the archdiocese's "religious beliefs and their religious obligations as entities that carry out the Catholic Church's mission of Catholic education in northern Colorado," and that it violated the schools' First Amendment right to free exercise of religion by forcing them to admit the children of LGBTQ+ parents.
Writing for the Tenth Circuit in a September 30 opinion, however, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Federico acknowledged that the nondiscrimination law applies equally to all Colorado schools.
"While the Constitution protects religious freedom, courts have long recognized the simple reality that the government must be able to enforce the law equally against everyone, no matter an individual's beliefs," he wrote, according to Courthouse News.
