Massachusetts authorities are threatening to remove children from even stable foster parents who refuse to sign agreements to “promote,” “support,” and “affirm” a child’s gender identity or expression. The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families implemented this requirement in 2023, demanding that parents speak and act in ways that affirm a foster child’s sexual orientation or gender identity at the threat of having the children taken back to state custody.
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Early this month, two families, the Joneses and the Schrocks, sued to challenge the policy on the grounds that it violates proper protection of their religious beliefs. The families are Christian and say they have either lost or are at risk of losing their licenses. According to the lawsuit, Massachusetts plans to remove a 17-month-old baby whom the Joneses have raised since the baby was 2 months old. The Schrocks had their license revoked this summer after telling the state they would not affirm the gender identity of their child.
At any moment in the United States, some 400,000 children are in the foster care system, including 8,000-9,000 in Massachusetts in roughly 5,500 available homes. The gender affirmation requirement would shrink that number considerably because religious households are more likely than members of the general population to become foster parents. A 2024 Bipartisan Policy Center and Harris Poll study found that 65% of foster parents attend church services weekly, compared to under 40% of the general U.S. population. A 2013 Barna Research study shows that practicing Christians are twice as likely to foster or adopt as the general population. They are also more likely to foster sibling groups, older youth, and children with special needs.
This is no mere coincidence. People motivated by faith, perhaps especially Christianity, view caring for vulnerable children as part of their religious commitment. They not only provide shelter and food for children but also moral grounding and emotional support.
Actively and deliberately reducing the number of stable and decent homes for foster children is a travesty, especially when it is being done to satisfy the demands of a radical and discredited ideology that masquerades as science and demands complicity.
In addition to being foolish and harmful to children, the gender affirmation requirement is a direct assault on religious freedom and the First Amendment. Massachusetts forces parents to renounce core Christian beliefs if they wish to retain their licenses, violating free exercise and free speech rights. The policy forces foster parents to adopt a leftist ideological view, which violates the First Amendment’s protection against compelled speech. The Supreme Court has consistently struck down such mandates and did so as recently as 2023 in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, which protected a Christian web designer from creating content against her faith.
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The gender affirmation regulation also infringes on the Free Exercise Clause by making foster care conditional on abandoning religious convictions. In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021), the court unanimously ruled that Philadelphia could not exclude a Catholic foster agency for refusing to certify same-sex couples, citing religious freedom protections.
By forcing Christian families, which comprise the backbone of the foster care system, to renounce their faith to participate, Massachusetts sacrifices vulnerable children and illegally discriminates against Christian families. What else should we expect in blue-state America?
