Choosing childcare is tricky enough. Like every parent, you want to find just the right place to nurture, encourage and care for your son or daughter. For some, that even means moving house.
You fill in the application forms and hope they’ll be accepted. Then, once you’re on the waiting list, you – well, wait, impatiently, for your name to get to the top.
That’s pretty much what happened to Brittney Ready and her wife, Stacey, who live in Waco, Texas. Their youngest child, Callie, had been on the waiting list for months to get into the Parkview Christian Academy daycare facility. When the call came to say there was a space for the little girl, off they went excitedly to look round. According to Brittney’s Facebook page: “The director was super sweet and welcoming to us and Callie.”
Thanks, but no thanks
But their joy was short-lived, reports American news site NBC. Before Brittney and Stacey even left the centre, they were called in to see another school administrator who told them Callie couldn’t enrol at the facility because the two women were ‘mates’. (‘Mates’. Not even ‘partners’. They’re human beings, not animals. Insert roll-eyes emoji here.)
Yes, that’s right. A legally married couple were told their child couldn’t attend their chosen daycare centre because they both happened to be the same sex. Please, somebody, explain to me how this is fair. Is it because they believe – mistakenly – that being gay is a sin? If that’s the case, then are children of unmarried parents also refused? What about those whose parents get divorced – do they have to surrender their place at Parkview Christian Academy?
Even their own handbook is somewhat woolly on the subject, stating that Parkview will make reasonable accommodation for all children and doesn’t discriminate “in regard to sex, race, color, disability, or national origin”. It doesn’t, however, address discrimination according to the sexual orientation or gender identity of its charges’ parents. Instead, there’s a handy ‘get-out’ clause that gives Parkview the right to refuse any child if staff feel unable to accommodate them.
An un-Christian decision
The decision to refuse little Callie admission to Parkview is ridiculous and unfair. Whatever the administrators feel about her parents’ sexuality, punishing her for it is hardly setting a Christian example. Callie’s attendance is hardly likely to have an adverse effect on her classmates, either – kids that age couldn’t care less about each other’s parents or homelife and, as Brittney wrote in her Facebook post: “We were not trying to plague your daycare, sir. We are gay – our daughter is not.”
In fact, the couple – who have been married for two years and have three other children – have displayed a far more mature and tolerant attitude towards Parkview and its staff than they have received themselves.
“That’s fine if that’s what they stand for,” said Brittney. “But make it known that’s what you stand for. Just remember at the end of the day everyone is human.”
A lucky escape
It’s understood that Callie has since received several offers from alternative daycare providers, so hopefully she’ll soon have a place at one with a far more tolerant attitude. As Brittney says: “I’m glad God was on our side and let the true colors show before my baby was subjected to their discriminating beliefs.”
The Parkview centre’s handbook ironically features a multi-coloured border and lettering on its first page, reminiscent of the rainbow adopted as a symbol by the LGBTQ+ community. It also proclaims itself ‘The Next Best Place To Home’. Somehow we struggle to believe it.
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