Made for Love (MUR e-news) January 2019

January 2019 January 2019 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Continuing the U.S. Bishops' work of promoting and defending marriage. Visit our Website The Dating Podcast: January 2019 To kick off 2019, January's "Made for Love" episodes are all about Catholics in the dating world. It is ROUGH out there, people! Here's the schedule: January 1: The Dating Podcast: Young Adults This episode focuses on young adults and college students, featuring Dr. Kerry Cronin of "The Dating Project" fame. (Check out the trailer below!) January 4: The Dating Podcast: Healthy Habits This episode focuses on approaching dating in a healthy way. January 11: The Dating Podcast: Stories This episode features stories about dating-- successes and failures. December Episodes In December, the podcast looked at Big Catholic Families (families with 8, 10, and 14 children, respectively!) and how families observe Advent and celebrate Christmas in Holidays: Family Festivities. We also have a flyer that you could download, print, and put up at your parish or in your office to help spread the word! REMINDER: If you listen to "Made for Love" through iTunes, the podcast is now available under its own name (not only through USCCB Clips) and it would help a lot if you would leave a review! This should make it much easier for people to find, subscribe, and tell their friends. We also continue to be on Soundcloud and podbean. iTunes Reminder REMINDER: If you listen to "Made for Love" through iTunes, the podcast is now available under its own name (not only through USCCB Clips) and it would help a lot if you would leave a review! This should make it much easier for people to find, subscribe, and tell their friends. We also continue to be on Soundcloud and podbean. USCCB Action Center All the USCCB's action alerts for legislative priorities are available at one website. There you can contact your representatives and make your voice heard. Check it out! Legal/ Policy Updates Military "Transgender Ban" – On December 13, the Dept. of Justice, which in November had asked the Supreme Court to bypass the normal appeals process, again approached the Supreme Court and, this time, asked for temporary stays against three lower courts' adverse preliminary rulings. These rulings have denied the Trump Administration's ability to not implement the "transgender" service and care policies that were launched in mid-2016 by the Obama Administration. Jack is Back – The Christian Baker, Jack Phillips, continues to persevere in his third case opposite the State of Colorado, which already lost in the US Supreme Court in June on account of its hostility to his beliefs in declining to make a custom cake for a same-sex wedding. On December 18, the federal district court held an initial hearing in his suit to stop the state from forcing him to bake a cake to celebrate a "gender transition." Colorado has been quite busy on this front. On November 30, the State began issuing driver's licenses with "X" and "I" sex options. On December 19, the Board of Health, as part of a lawsuit settlement, voted to allow people to change the sex on their birth certificates without surgery; and, on the same day, a committee of the Denver City Council began debating a ban on "conversion therapy" for minors. New York Adoption Case – To prevent being shut down or forced to surrender its tenets by the State, for not placing children in the care of same-sex or cohabiting couples, a privately-funded pregnancy center and adoption agency, New Hope Family Services of Syracuse, NY, sued State officials on December 6. Idaho – On December 13, 2018, a federal court ordered Idaho to provide "gender confirmation" surgery to a male who had lived for years as a woman in a men's prison. Made for Love | USCCB | (202) 541-3000 | defenseofmarriage@usccb.org| www.marriageuniqueforareason.org