Lesbian couple was denied chance to be foster parents by taxpayer-funded charity. So they sued.

A lesbian married couple from Texas is suing the federal government after they say that a Catholic nonprofit that receives taxpayer funding denied them the opportunity to serve as foster parents for refugee children because of their sexual orientation.

Fatma Marouf, 41, and Bryn Esplin, 33, both professors at Texas A&M University in Fort Worth, said they were beginning the process to become refugee foster parents last year when they were told by a local charity, Catholic Charities of Fort Worth, that they did not qualify after it became clear that they were a same-sex couple, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in district court in Washington.

The Catholic Charities of Fort Worth receives taxpayer funding to help find foster parents for refugee children, in the form of sub-grants from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which receives grants from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

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