WASHINGTON: Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren't welcome in the classroom.
The policies that discriminated against LGBTQ people and their children were in place for years at Trinity Schools Inc, both before Barrett joined the board in 2015 and during the time she served.
The three schools, in Indiana, Minnesota and Virginia, are affiliated with People of Praise, an insular community rooted in its own interpretation of the Bible, of which Barrett and her husband have been longtime members.
At least three of the couple's seven children have attended the Trinity School at Greenlawn, in South Bend, Indiana.
The AP spoke with more than two dozen people who attended or worked at Trinity Schools, or former members of People of Praise.
They said the community's teachings have been consistent for decades: Homosexuality is an abomination against God, sex should occur only within marriage and marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Interviewees told the AP that Trinity's leadership communicated anti-LGBTQ policies and positions in meetings, one-on-one conversations, enrollment agreements, employment agreements, handbooks and written policies, including those in place when Barrett was an active member of the board.
"Trinity Schools does not unlawfully discriminate with respect to race, color, gender, national origin, age, disability, or other legally protected classifications under applicable law, with respect to the administration of its programs," said Jon Balsbaugh, president of Trinity Schools Inc, which runs the three campuses, in an email.
The actions are probably legal, experts said.
Scholars said the school's and organization's teachings on homosexuality and treatment of LGBTQ people are harsher than those of the mainstream Catholic church.
Barrett's views on whether LGBTQ people should have the same constitutional rights as other Americans became a focus last week in her Senate confirmation hearing.
But her longtime membership in People of Praise and her leadership position at Trinity Schools were not discussed, even though most of the people the AP spoke with said her deep and decades-long involvement in the community signals she would be hostile to gay rights if confirmed.
Suzanne B Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies sexuality and gender law, said private schools have wide legal latitude to set admissions criteria.
And, she said, Trinity probably isn't covered by recent Supreme Court rulings outlawing employment discrimination against LGBTQ people because of its affiliation with a religious community.
But, she added, cases addressing those questions are likely to come before the high court in the near future, and Barrett's past oversight of Trinity's discriminatory policies raises concerns.
"When any member of the judiciary affiliates themselves with an institution that is committed to discrimination on any ground, it is important to look more closely at how that affects the individual's ability to give all cases a fair hearing," Goldberg said.
The AP sent detailed questions for Barrett to the White House press office.
Rather than providing direct answers, White House spokesman Judd Deere instead accused AP of attacking the nominee.
"Because Democrats and the media are unable to attack Judge Barrett's sterling qualifications, they have instead turned to pathetic personal attacks on her children's Christian school, even though the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed that religious schools are protected by the First Amendment," Deere said in an email.
Nearly all the people interviewed for this story are gay or said they have gay family members.
They used words such as "terrified," "petrified" and "frightening" to describe the prospect of Barrett on the high court.
Some of them know Barrett, have mutual friends with her or even have been in her home dozens of times.
They describe her as "nice" or "a kind person," but told the AP they feared others would suffer if Barrett tries to implement People of Praise's views on homosexuality on the Supreme Court.
About half of the people asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation against themselves or their families from other members of People of Praise, or because they had not come out to everyone in their lives.
Among those interviewed were people who attended all three of its schools and who had been active in several of its 22 branches.
Their experiences stretched back as far as the 1970s, and as recently as 2020.
Tom Henry was a senior at Trinity School in Eagan, Minnesota, serving as a student ambassador, providing tours to prospective families, when Barrett was an active member of the board.
In early 2017, a lesbian parent asked him whether Trinity was open to gay people and expressed concern about how her child would be treated.
Henry, who is gay, said he didn't know what to say.
He had been instructed not to answer questions about People of Praise or Trinity's "politics".
The next day, Henry recalled, he asked the school's then-headmaster, Jon Balsbaugh, how he should have answered.
Henry said Balsbaugh pulled a document out of his desk drawer that condemned gay marriage, and explained it was a new policy from People of Praise that was going into the handbook.