The governor of Idaho has signed a law to protect Christians who adopt children from government persecution. The law is significantly important given the persecution Christian families are facing in neighboring states of Washington and Oregon.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little, on Monday, signed H 578, a bill that ensures faith-based adoption and foster care providers are free to serve children in need and work with the state to find loving, forever homes for kids.
Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Greg Chafuen applauded the governor for signing the bill.
“Every child deserves a loving home that can provide them stability and opportunities to grow. Faith-based adoption and foster care providers have served children looking for loving homes for centuries while living out their sincerely held religious beliefs. Yet, in states like Oregon, children have been denied safety and care because government officials have chosen to put politics over people,” he told LifeNews.
“The sad reality is that when the government can discriminate against people of faith, vulnerable children suffer. We applaud Idaho for prioritizing the well-being of kids by prohibiting state and local government officials from discriminating against adoption and foster care providers and parents simply because of their religious beliefs and moral convictions. This law helps children benefit from as many adoption and foster care agencies as possible, faith- and non-faith-based alike,” Chaufen added.
He concluded: “We commend Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, Rep. Megan Blanksma, and the Idaho Legislature for their leadership on this and Gov. Little for signing this bill into law to keep faith-based adoption and foster care providers free to serve children in need. Children always deserve loving families. More adoption and foster care providers mean more children can find a loving forever home—that’s keeping kids first.”
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Meanwhile, on behalf of a Washington state couple who wishes to continue to serve as foster parents, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Friday against state officials who refused to renew the couple’s foster-care license because of their common-sense and religiously inspired view that people can’t change their sex.
In August 2022, Shane and Jennifer DeGross worked with foster-care licensing agency Olive Crest to renew their license to provide a home to vulnerable children. The agency informed them that the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families enacted new regulations that require all foster parents to use a foster child’s inaccurate pronouns based on their perceived gender identity, not their actual sex. The regulations also require that parents take children to cultural events like pride parades. Because of their Christian faith, the DeGrosses told Olive Crest they would love and support any child placed in their home but could not lie to a child about who they are or encourage a child to reject their sex. DCYF officials then denied their application, even after Olive Crest made more than one attempt to appeal the denial.
“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,” said ADF Legal Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse. “As a federal court has already affirmed in Blais v. Hunter, this exclusion is unconstitutional—religious beliefs about human sexuality are not a legitimate or constitutional reason to categorically bar citizens from helping children. Washington is putting families like the DeGrosses to an impossible choice: speak against your faith and lie or give up the opportunity to care for hurting children. That is illegal and wrong.”
Inspired by the biblical command to care for widows and orphans, the DeGrosses served as loving foster parents to several children for just over nine years. They cared for four children, including two young girls whom they cared for for eighteen months and two years respectively. When they sought to renew their license, the DeGrosses hoped to serve as respite-care providers —those who can act as a stopgap for children without a stable home. In its appeal to the state, Olive Crest said of Shane and Jennifer that they “have a heart for serving children in [their] community” and their “faithful ministry to children in Washington has been a blessing.”
During the renewal process, Olive Crest informed the DeGrosses about Washington’s new gender-identity mandate and how other families were also faced with a “personal decision” to comply or walk away from serving children in need. Confronted with the state’s new rules, the DeGrosses affirmed that they would “love and support any child who is placed in [their] home,” but could speak or promote views contrary to their faith. Olive Crest submitted their application to the State and sought an exemption from the regulations on pronouns, adding that the DeGrosses are a “very loving and gracious couple who truly desire to support other foster families.” The Department, however, was unwilling to renew their license.
In Blais, a couple sued the Department for excluding foster parents who disagreed with the state’s ideology on gender. The Blaises sought to care for their great-granddaughter but were denied because they would not “support hormone therapy” for a hypothetical child suffering from gender dysphoria or otherwise speak or act against their sincerely held beliefs. A Washington federal district court ruled that the Department cannot bar caregivers from foster care solely because of their beliefs about human sexuality.
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.”
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, DeGross v. Hunter, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tacoma Division.
In a similar case, ADF attorneys are representing mother-of-five Jessica Bates in a lawsuit against the state of Oregon for denying her application to be a foster parent because of her religious beliefs.
Conrad Reynoldson of Washington Civil & Disability Advocate, one of more than 4,500 attorneys in the ADF Attorney Network, is serving as local counsel on behalf of the DeGross family.
