Covenant House Alaska, which began as a Catholic outreach for Anchorage’s homeless and run-away youth – ages 13 to 24 – has rejected core moral tenets of its faith-based roots in favor of facilitating abortions, imposing strict LGBTQ mandates on staff and young clients and supporting sexual “transitions” for gender-confused youth.
Nearly 40 years ago, late Anchorage Archbishop Francis Hurley invited the national Covenant House organization to consider establishing a site in Anchorage to minister to the growing population of homeless youth. Hurley helped negotiate a faith-based partnership with the city, and in 1988 Covenant House Alaska opened its doors.
Located in downtown Anchorage, the outreach has enjoyed longstanding support from area Catholics. Parish youth groups, Catholic volunteers, local clergy and many others have donated countless hours and considerable money over the past four decades.
In fact, earlier this year, Covenant House Alaska CEO Alison Kear said 90% of the Anchorage site’s funding comes from Alaskans. The organization spends about $10.8 million annually with more than $7 million going to staff salaries and “related expenses.”
“The community has stepped up and taken control of the situation at hand,” Kear said in February. “Together, we are actively working to end the experience of youth homelessness in Alaska.”
While Covenant House has provided needed shelter and safety to countless youth since its founding, what many donors and volunteers may not know is that the organization also helps youth procure abortions, while mandating that staff and homeless youth acknowledge and enable a vast array of LGBTQ gender identities and expressions.
The organization’s involvement with abortion came to light in late August when a longtime pro-life sidewalk counselor, Wendy Perkins, was praying outside the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Anchorage. She told the Alaska Watchman that she saw a Covenant House vehicle pull up and deliver a young woman to the abortion clinic.
“The Covenant House staff member got out, and in a determined way assertively escorted the girl directly into the clinic in such a way to purposely ensured the young women could not receive any life-affirming hope,” Perkins recounted. “I could not believe my eyes. It was like witnessing your church van delivering the youth to go kill their children.”
Like many Catholic institutions, Covenant House has gradually drifted from its religious roots.
Perkins, under the impression that Covenant House operated as a faith-based outreach, contacted the organization to find out what their policy was with regard to facilitating abortions for young women.
She said a staffer explained that Covenant House does not strictly adheres to Catholic moral teaching.
“My mind went racing, I couldn’t believe this! I was under the impression that this was a wonderful righteous Catholic organization,” Perkins said. “It turns out I wasn’t alone in my assumption. Nearly everyone in my circle presumed the same.”
Perkins said the staff person told her that Covenant House now routinely takes young women to Planned Parenthood for abortions.
The Watchman made repeated attempts to contact Covenant House for more details, but the organization has refused to comment.
Facilitating abortion is strictly forbidden according to Catholic teaching, which views it tantamount to enabling the murder of a pre-born baby.
Perkins is deeply disturbed by the direction the organization has chosen, and she believes those who support the Covenant House should know where it stands.
“Covenant House has now become an enemy of life,” she said. “They are more affiliated with Planned Parenthood than they are affiliated with the Catholic Church.”
Covenant House is an independent nonprofit and is not officially under the control of the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, but the national organization was founded in the 1970s by Catholic clergy in New York. From there it has expanded to 34 cities across six countries.
According to the policy, every staff member and client must be treated as the gender they claim to be, “regardless of whether they are “perceived to ‘pass’ as the gender with which they identify.”
When Archbishop Hurley invited the group to Alaska, it was part of a concerted effort on the behalf of local Catholics to helped expand the faith-based outreaches and services to Alaska’s poor and vulnerable. This included Catholic Social Services, the Brother Francis Shelter and Clare House for women and children.
In Alaska, as in areas across the nation, Covenant House has long enjoyed widespread support from local Catholics. It has been regularly mentioned in the official Catholic newspaper of the Anchorage-Juneau Archdiocese as a worthy Catholic charity to support, and area parishes have provided a vast array of financial and human resources.
Covenant House’s mission statement still references “God’s providence,” and the organization claims to be a “visible sign that effects the presence of God, working through the Holy Spirit among ourselves and our kids.”
But like many Catholic institutions, it has gradually drifted from its religious roots. Sister Mary Rose McGeady led the organization from 1990 to 2003, when Covenant House still largely adhered to its historic faith-based mission. Over the past two decades, however, things have changed.
In addition to facilitating abortions, the Anchorage branch now prominently celebrates LGBTQ Pride Month, and in 2021 the national organization approved a new LGBTQ policy for all sites, including curriculum updates, LGBTQ webinars and staff training to ensure “buy-in at all levels.”
According to the policy, every staff member and client must be treated as the gender they claim to be, “regardless of whether they are “perceived to ‘pass’ as the gender with which they identify.”
In all personal interactions, written and verbal communications staff are required to use a youth’s preferred pronouns. This includes referring to gender-confused males as “she/her” and gender confused females as “he/him.” Likewise, all youth are to be allowed to dress in accordance with whichever gender they personally identify, even if this changes over time.
The policy mandates that males “who identify as female” and who desire to be housed with biological females are “to be housed with females and use the female bathrooms. “Transgender females shall have the same access to bathrooms and bedrooms as persons assigned female at birth,” the policy states. The same applies to gender-confused females who believe they are actually male.
“Under no circumstances will a TGNC (transgender non-conforming) person be required to use alternative facilities, including as an ‘accommodation’ for another person’s discomfort,” the policy clarifies. It adds that youth who don’t feel safe sleeping or using the same intimate facilities as those of the opposite sex should be sent to an “alternative space” if such an option is available.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
If a youth expresses concerns, fears or objections about sharing intimate spaces with a member of the opposite sex, the policy directs staff to “immediately intervene” and explain that gender-confused youth are “not a threat to them and that they should be respectful of all youth’s right to access residential and program services.”
The policy affirms the use of cross-sex hormones for youth who desire to “transition” to another sex, stating that “Covenant House will treat hormones that belong to transgender youth as any other medication and will not consider them a prohibited substance nor confiscate them.”
Similarly, the policy explains that “Covenant House will treat chest binding and packers belonging to transgender youth as extensions of that person’s body and will not consider them a prohibited items nor confiscate them.”
Failure to abide by these directives are to “result in disciplinary action,” the policy mandates.
Like the abortion protocols, facilitating gender-confusion is deeply contrary to Catholic moral teaching.
While the Catholic Church calls for respect of those with homosexual inclination, it has long taught that homosexual tendencies are “objectively disordered” and homosexual acts “can never be approved.”
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to contact Covenant House Alaska.
— Click here to see who sits on the Covenant House Alaska board of directors.
— Click here to see who serves on the Covenant House Alaska executive team.
34 Comments
Do not go to Kaladi Brothers on the 1st of January because they are supporting this ideological corrupt organization. I have emailed them and let them know that I will not support an organization that supports the killing of an unborn child and the desecration of a child in these unneeded transgender surgeries instead of the Physiological help that they need.
The Covenant House facilitating the dark world of transition and the wholesale murder of children is just further proof that the enemy of our souls is alive and well in the earth today. If you have the time and the opportunity, please reach out to one of these young ones and show them you care. We have turned our backs on the orphan and the dysfunctional and handed them over to the darkness. The church has lost its calling.
if you met some trans kids you’ know that the only darkness in their world comes from the irrational fears and prejudices held by the people who are supposed to care for them. it’s why many of them are homeless to begin with- they get absused as their parents try to ‘fix them’, and disowned. I’ve seen it myself far too many times.
My parents disowned me and kicked me out to be homeless cuz im trans. I don’t live in anchorage, but luckily I found a homeless organization in the part of alaska i live in who are very trans accepting.
should this be surprising to anyone? archbishop bellisario and pope francis condone and even encourage the acceptance of this deviant, perverted, and demonic behavior, the LGBTQ movement. And they are advocating for Marxism in western societies with their pushing of liberation theology – which Pope John Paul strongly condemned. this archbishop’s WAR against traditional Catholicism, as exemplified by what he did to Holy Rosary Academy and his current condemnation of the Latin Mass, women wearing veils at Mass, and his criticism of kneeling before Christ to receive the eucharist is deeply disturbing. The Catholic Church is so much bigger and stronger than weak men. Traditional Catholics remain steadfast against the demonic forces at work in our beautiful church!
Everything liberalism touched it destroys, no exceptions.
There can be no alliance between Christianity and abortion or the alphabet gender-confused agenda.
You are why this country is so divided.
Of course same-day-serivce. the Godly are recommended not to be unequaly yoked with the unGodly, that inludes where we give our monetary donations .
That’s why jaime allard plus a man wasted $5000 donating to Covenent House. I don’t like nonprofits, its too attractive of a workplace for
lazy employees. If she wanted to donate, she should have donated it to hope center, hope house, or gospel rescue mission. When i saw mrak photo of allard, a man, and the check the two were donating i was disappointed, and thought allard has a bit of blue in her or she naive to donate such an amount to a demonic non profit since i remember of 2006.
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Nobody supports gender transition for gender confused children. The POINT of the process of getting a diagnosis for gender dysphoria is that therapists and psychologists test children to filter out the ones that are just confused, versus the ones with gender dysphoria. Children being confused about gender is VERY common. People with gender dysphoria is uncommon by comparison. Hence the interest in getting accurate diagnoses.
ITS THE FREAKING PSYCHOLOGIST AND THERAPIST THAT ARE LEADERS OF THE GENDER ABOMINATION BS… FROM THE ABOMINATION RAC -HELL LEVINE ON DOWN IN GOVT,
You are free to hate trans kids of you want to. But that sin is equal to any sin you ignorantly think trans people committed just for existing. God will deliver just recompense in the afterlife By casting you from his sight forever as he did the Morning Star; as YOU have done by choosing to hate thy neighbor. That’s what the Christian Bible says. You’ll don that hate and you think it a breastplate of righteousness. You’ll carry it with your soul to the afterlife, and there will be no place left for you in Heaven.
Romans- “ “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
I support gender transition for trans kids.
C’mon Covenant House, really? Providing shelter to homeless youth is awesome but remember, most are scared, very confused and at their wits end, they require a secure foundation that is solid not a pile of woke hogwash shoved down their throats! They are trying to survive! Its as if Covenant Hs is opportunistic by taking advantage of vulnerable youth, very shameful whoever has made these policies and shameful for those knowingly propagating them.
When I was homeless as a young trans man I would have felt a thousand times more afraid for my life in a himophobic l, transphobic institution. I remember walking into the doors of the shelter I loved in in San Francisco on the first night and feeling a wave of relief wash over me when I saw other kids who had made a point of being visibly queer. I have never been closer to any other friend group than the people I met when, because I was at my wits end, because there was no safe place for me to just exist, I was able to find people who could relate. I d9nt understand why anyone would think this is a bad thing.
Read the bible, its an excellent guide.
Grade A gaslighting and manipulation right here:
“If a youth expresses concerns, fears or objections about sharing intimate spaces with a member of the opposite sex, the policy directs staff to “immediately intervene” and explain that gender-confused youth are “not a threat to them.”
Invalidate real actual concerns about physical safety for the furtherance of morally bankrupt ideology. Seems pretty clear: these people don’t care about youth, they care about forcing their views on others.
“ they care about forcing their views on others.”. Sounds like you are referring to Christians.
One can only guess what services you offer.
You’re the one doing the gaslighting. Lgbt kids AREN’T a threat to other kids in shelters. Being afraid of them is a learned response from abusive, transphobic parents that taught them lies about lgbt people. The Covenant house compassionately teaches them the truth so they no longer need to feel scared of their false beliefs.
These poor young people are not being offered hope or true solutions to the problems and difficulties they face. If Covenant House is facilitating the killing of their children, the use of hormone therapy drugs which are known to cause sterility, and encouraging their staff to affirm their gender confusion, then Covenant House is promoting the lie that sex, drugs, and constant “affirmation” of your life choices will bring happiness. Covenant House is aggressively pushing the youth further down the destructive paths they’re trying to leave.
hey whats up, I was a trans kid in a shelter. in fact that’s where I started taking testosterone! I’m pretty happy and doing well in my life 10 years on and so are most of the other trans folks I met at that time. We’re people and I wish you would see that. thanks
Very well put.
my response was to Eli’s comment.
the reply section is messed up on this system!
same day service.
your condemnation of people of faith is rich.
here’s a list of atheistic societies in the last 100 years.
Maoist China.
Leninist/Stalinist Russia.
Pol Phot Cambodia.
Nazi Germany.
Kim Jung-Un North Korea
Can’t forget the workers paradise of Fidel’s Cuba.
Be thankful for governments that follow divinely inspired Judeo/Christian ethics and morals in governance. The alternative is, literally, the most barbaric, savage, brutal experience you can expose a population to.
No one but an abuser or sex trafficker stands to benefit from the following policy:
“If a youth expresses concerns, fears or objections about sharing intimate spaces with a member of the opposite sex, the policy directs staff to “immediately intervene” and explain that gender-confused youth are “not a threat to them and that they should be respectful of all youth’s right to access residential and program services.”
Why are you afraid of trans kids?
No fear/ We believe Creator of the Universe who Said I am the Lord your god and I change not, who wrote that sodomy and same sex intimacy is an abomination to HIM. ” And he created them Male and females. Man and wo-man. Period. That is not fear, but rather minding your eternal Father’s commands. Several years ago I worked extra to get coats, clothing, warm gear to Covenant House annual pre winter event. I engaged several young people and found that while a few were in awful, untenable home situations. the majority were as the “Prodigal”, wanting unrestrained freedoms to run free, disobeying everyday rules of their parents homes.. but wanting ME to pay for it.. that was the last time I gave even a dime to a group who suborned such rebellion.
Thank you, Covenant House, for supporting youth that Republicans want to disappear.
The problem with teens and trans gendering is exactly that, they’re teens… still children. They have a lot to learn and like all adults that have experienced their teenage years, then matured to look back and see exactly how confused they were and thankful for the correct guidance they received. At one time, as a young boy I wanted to jump off building and fly. Thankfully I had guidance that reasoned with me I would never be able to fly. A male will never be able to be a female, nor a female a male. No surgery, nor injections will change your gender anymore than a cape would have allowed me to fly.
thank you Jon. I lived in a youth shelter 10 years ago. about half of the clients were homeless queer kids who did not feel safe or were no longer allowed to live with their families. It feels so horrible to talk aboit what I’ve seen with my own eyes and have conservatives act like we somehow get special treatment.
Appalling. I was under the impression that the business of Covenant House was to provide shelter, basic needs and help a homeless young person find work, get education, etc. I also have always thought it to be a Catholic organization. If this is what they are doing, they have abandoned their mission and cannot be referred to as Catholic. I will no longer donate to them. It is wrong to murder and wrong to lie and that is what the LGBTQ agenda is about.
is fighting “wokeness” more important than helping homeless people?
Let me ask you a similar question Carol; Is encouraging a confused child on an issue that can never become a reality be more important than getting them to face the facts?