USA: Christian Foster Parents’ License Revoked Over Transgender Ideology
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A Christian couple who fostered children in Washington state have filed a federal lawsuit after their license to foster was withdrawn on the grounds of their stated refusal to relate to children on the basis of preferred gender identity rather than actual biological sex.
Seasoned foster parents who cared for vulnerable children for nine years,
Shane and Jennifer DeGross were told in 2022 that the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families had implemented new regulations requiring carers to call foster children by their preferred gender pronouns and take them to specific cultural events such as Gay Pride parades.
The DeGrosses told the Department they were requesting the renewal of their foster-care license because they would “love and support any child who is placed in [their] home.” However, the couple said, they could not adopt the language and behaviors the Department required because this was contrary to their faith.
The Department denied the couple’s request for an exemption, and refused to renew their license.
In a press release announcing they had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the DeGrosses, attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom organization noted: “From 2017 to 2021, Washington state’s foster-care system served over 10,000 children annually. Due to a shortage of available care, children have had to sleep in hotels and, in some cases, the cars of case workers. An audit of Washington’s foster-care system revealed that these ‘emergency placements’ are ‘traumatic experiences for [foster] children.’”
“Washington state officials are putting their own ideological agenda ahead of children who just need a loving home. Despite the DeGrosses’ faithful service as foster parents for nine years, the state disqualified them simply for having views that Washington does not like,” the ADF statement reads.
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