Massachusetts Scraps Requirement That Foster Parents Affirm Identity Of LGBTQ+ Children
Following a lawsuit by conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, Mass. will no longer require foster parents to affirm a child’s “sexual orientation and gender identity.”
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Just two months ago, GO reported on a self-described Christian couple in Massachusetts who defied state policy that recognized the benefits of fostering an inclusive environment: foster parents were required to affirm the gender identity and sexual orientation of the children they foster. As a result of refusing to sign the Department of Children and Families (DCF) LGBTQIA+ Non-Discrimination Policy, Woburn residents, Lydia and Heath Marvin, had their foster license pulled in April and embarked on a legal response.
As it turns out, this month, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families has reversed course.
On Dec. 12, the agency updated its regulations, replacing language that required that foster parents affirm a child’s “sexual orientation and gender identity” with new language that says that they must support a child’s “individual identity and needs.” The move follows a lawsuit undertaken by conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in September, on behalf of two families (the Schrocks and the Joneses) who claimed their religious beliefs would be jeopardized if they abided by the law; an investigation by the federal Administration for Children and Families followed the lawsuit.
ADF’s response to the change was predictable. “Massachusetts has told us that this new regulation will no longer exclude Christian and other religious families from foster care because of their commonly held beliefs that boys are boys and girls are girls,” said ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse. The organization was founded by the Christian Right and is a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group, with a long list of anti-LGBTQ initiatives, cloaked under its stated mandate of developing “religious liberty” legislation.
The amended policy and language also follow a new Trump executive order, prioritizing faith-based participation in foster care. Titled Fostering the Future for American Children and Families, the EO claims that some policies “discourage or prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.” The order falls under the domain of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Currently, Massachusetts has about 6,500 children in its foster-care system, but only 5,100 licensed homes, according to the lawsuit.
