Vermont Win for Children, Foster Families and Religious Freedom
The Vermont foster care system revoked a policy requiring foster parents to affirm a child’s “sexual orientation,” “gender identity” or “gender expression.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represented two Christian families who sued the state after the Vermont Department for Children and Families revoked their foster care licenses because their religious beliefs kept them from affirming and supporting gender ideology.
The department had put in place policies that discriminate against those with beliefs that diverge from false and damaging homosexual and “transgender” ideologies. Its new policy prohibits viewpoint discrimination.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse stated in a press release:
The Christian legal aid organization described the two families who filed the lawsuit:
ADF explained that despite the real need in Vermont for more foster parents, and in spite of their success in fostering and adopting children, “Vermont officials revoked their licenses in 2022 and 2024 because of their religious beliefs against gender ideology.”
The couples’ initial complaint quoted case workers who lauded them as foster parents:
But when the Wuotis stated they were Christians and that “they could not say or do anything that went against faith-informed views about human sexuality, Vermont revoked their license anyway.”
Likewise with the Gantts. Because of their good record with infants affected by drugs and alcohol, “In 2023, the Department asked them to take an emergency placement involving a baby about to be born to a woman who was homeless and addicted to drugs.”
The complaint explained what happened next:
As if an infant from a homeless and drug-addicted mother has a “sexual orientation,” “gender identity” or “gender expression” — and as if the baby even cares about the foster parents beliefs about these issues.
Rather than helping children, the state chose to impose homosexual and transgender ideologies, violating the couples’ freedoms of speech, religion and association.
The lawsuit explained that in 2020, the Vermont Department for Children and Families adopted Policy 76, “Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Children & Youth,” which “provides internal guidance for Department staff on placing children who express an LGBT identity, and training foster families on how to support the child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (‘SOGIE’).”
The Policy stated “Parents, family members, and resource families should be encouraged to:
- Support children’s identities even if it feels uncomfortable.
- Bring young people to LGBTQ organizations and events in the community.
- Support young people’s gender expression.
- Believe that youth can have a happy future as an LGBTQ adult.
In addition, Policy 76 instructed caregivers to use “appropriate pronouns [and a child’s] preferred name” to promote a child’s “Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence.”
Because of the lawsuit, the old policy has been rescinded, and new guidance for Residential Licensing and Special Investigations (RLSI) of foster care applicants has been created.
Effective February 26, 2026, applications will still include an application question, “I am open to caring for a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) child/youth.”
But then the RLSI guidance goes on to state:
- Conversations with applicants should focus on caregiving capacity — not beliefs.
- Safety – physical and emotional – is the core licensing focus.
- Licensing evaluates behavior, not viewpoints.
Now, the RLSI specifically says, “Licensing does not require”:
- Endorsement or affirmation of specific identities.
- Agreement with certain viewpoints.
- Changes to personal, cultural, religious, moral, or philosophical beliefs.
- Use of particular vocabulary, prescribed language, or preferred pronouns related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or identity expression.
- Answers to certain hypothetical ideological or future-speech scenarios.
Other states, including California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington, violate free speech and religious freedom by requiring applicants for foster parenting to adhere to LGBT ideology.
But this case, along with an Oregon case where a federal court upheld a Christian mother’s right to adopt, rejecting Oregon’s unconstitutional gender ideology mandate, gives hope that these egregious state policies will be overturned.
The Christian Alliance for Orphans reports, “Christians are more likely to foster or adopt than the general population.”
And the Bipartisan Policy Center adds,
Foster care laws and regulations that promote homosexual and transgender ideology discriminate against people of faith, and they harm children who could be fostered or adopted into good homes.
The Daily Citizen is grateful for Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and California Family Council that are fighting back against these egregious, damaging policies that violate constitutional freedoms and place children at risk.
To speak with a family help specialist or request resources, please call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).
Through Wait No More’s Suitcase Bundle ministry, children in foster care are provided their own suitcase — for their belongings — as well as a teddy bear, handwritten letter and age-appropriate Bible. The suitcase bundle is a simple way to offer dignity, comfort and hope to children in scary, lonely situations.
Related articles and resources:
Transforming Lives Through Foster Care
What You Can Do to Help Kids in Foster Care
Changing the World Through Adoption
Proposed Executive Order Would Protect Parental Rights
When Government is Hostile to Christian Foster Parents
First Lady Welcomes Foster and Adoptive Families to the White House
Arkansas & Kansas Enact Protections for Faith-Based Adoption, Foster Care
States Exclude Christian Parents From Foster Care
Photo: Rebecca Gantt with one of her children, from Alliance Defending Freedom.
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