Massachusetts forces foster families to adopt gender ideology, says lawsuit
Massachusetts is forcing foster families to adopt gender ideology even when it contradicts their religious beliefs, a new lawsuit claims.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is suing the state on behalf of two couples who say they were denied foster children because they refuse to believe in gender ideology. According to ADF, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) requires prospective foster parents to promise to “use a child’s chosen pronouns, encourage a child to transition socially and medically, and otherwise affirm a child’s stated gender identity when it conflicts with the child’s sex.”
The requirement, which was introduced between 2023 and 2024, applies to all foster parents, even those who care for infants and even those who provide short-term respite care for just a few hours. The DCF demands all foster parents sign a document pledging to “[s]upport, respect, and affirm the foster child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression,” even if doing so violates their religious beliefs. Those who refuse to sign have their foster licenses revoked.
Parents are forced to affirm gender confusion
Foster parents are also required to sign an “LGBTQIA+ Nondiscrimination Policy” in which they promise to “accept a child’s assertion of their LGBTQIA+ identity and allow children to use their expressed names and pronouns at any time.” The document says they will “address children by their names and pronouns,” “support gender-neutral practices regarding clothes and physical appearance” including “gender-affirming clothing, such as binders, packers, body shapers, bras, breast inserts, and similar items in a timely manner,” and provide children with “culturally responsive and affirming … medical care, mental health care, and community resources, including gender-affirming care when applicable.”
The policy also forbids foster parents from “attempts to convince LGBTQIA+ children/youth to reject or modify their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression,” or to “impose … personal, cultural, and/or religious beliefs on children and families involved with the Department.”
Nick and Audrey Jones, two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, are Christians who have been foster parents since 2023. They have cared for seven children, all under age six, including a 17-month-old. The Joneses have lovingly cared for the child for the last 15 months, to the satisfaction of the DCF. But the state now intends to remove the child from the home because the Joneses refuse to comply with the new gender mandate.
Greg and Marianelly Schrock, the other plaintiffs, are Christians who have provided loving foster care to 28 kids since 2019. But in June, the DCF revoked their foster care license because they refused to sign the gender policy documents.
“Massachusetts’ foster care system is in crisis: The commonwealth has more than 1,400 children who are waiting to be placed with a loving family. Yet Massachusetts is putting its ideological agenda ahead of the needs of these suffering kids,” said ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse. “This is a particularly egregious case because the Joneses care for a little girl who is happy and healthy in the only home she’s ever known. Now just because of the Joneses’ commonly held religious beliefs, the commonwealth says the Joneses are unfit to parent and is threatening to uproot this little child. That’s not putting children first and that’s why we’re suing the commonwealth in federal court.”
