Gary Bauer: Second-Class Christians | The Patriot Post

When Oregon mother Jessica Bates decided to adopt two foster children, she got a shocking response from the Oregon Department of Human Services. Bates was told she could not adopt children because she was a Christian with normal biblical beliefs about sexuality and gender.
 
The denial letter from the Department of Human Services specifically cited her belief that “God gives us our gender/sex, and it’s not something we get to choose” for rejecting her adoption application.
 
In order to adopt children, Oregon requires adoptive parents to “respect, accept, and support the … sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression” of children.
 
Bates was told she must use a child’s “preferred pronouns,” forcing her to lie about biological reality. She was ordered to make her home a “hate-free zone” by displaying rainbow flags, Pride flags, pink triangles, and other LGBTQ-affirming symbols, “whether or not a youth in your care openly identifies as LGBTQ+.”
 
Bates was told to avoid attending religious activities that were “unsupportive of people with diverse [sexual orientation and gender identity expression].”
 
This is what happens when the Left gets power. In the name of tolerance, intolerant leftists tell you what you can and cannot believe, what you can and cannot say, and what you can and cannot do. Oregon “progressives” are treating Christians like second-class citizens.
 
Thankfully, our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom took up Bates’s case and sued the state of Oregon. After losing an initial request for an injunction against the state’s outrageous demands, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in.
 
In a decision written by a Trump appointee, the appeals court judges determined that Oregon’s adoption law was not “neutral toward religion” and, thus, was held to a “strict scrutiny” test — the highest legal standard applied in U.S. law when it comes to possible violations of fundamental rights.
 
Bates’s religious liberty rights were clearly violated by the state of Oregon, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted her request for an injunction. She can now proceed with the adoption process while her legal challenge against Oregon’s bigoted, anti-Christian adoption policies continues — a case she will very likely win.