Court: State likely pushing unconstitutional ‘trans’ policy for foster kids

A court has ruled that the state of Washington likely is pushing an unconstitutional mandatory social “transition” agenda onto foster children, and the families who volunteer to take care of them.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo means a lawsuit brought on behalf of Shane and Jennifer DeGross will continue.

“When children are sleeping on cots in child-welfare offices for lack of loving homes, states like Washington should be doing everything they can to bring in more qualified foster parents,” said Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, an ADF lawyer. “But Washington state is putting its own ideological agenda ahead of children’s needs, even though a federal court already enjoined a similarly unconstitutional policy in 2021. Washington should take the hint: it needs to end its unconstitutional and discriminatory policy.”

A report from LifeNews said the issue is that the state was demanding that foster parents work to socially “transition” foster children if those children claim to be transgender.

The ruling is that that likely violates the First Amendment.

The fight erupted because biased state officials in Washington refused to issue a standard foster care license to the DeGross family because of their religious objections to transgenderism, and socially or medically “transitioning” children.

That’s a scientific impossibility as being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level and doesn’t change.

The decision refused state officials’ demands that the overall case be dismissed, although it did allow for some claims to be dropped, giving the couple time to provide additional information that could restore them.

The report said, “The DeGrosses served as loving foster parents for years in Washington state until state officials refused to renew the couple’s foster-care license in 2022 under a rule requiring them to use a child’s chosen pronouns.

“After the DeGrosses’ lost their license, they sued state officials in 2024 for religious discrimination, and Washington subsequently allowed the DeGrosses to re-apply for their license,” the report said.

But officials then said they would refuse to issue a standard license “just because of their beliefs on the sanctity of the human body. Instead, the state prohibited them from foster-care placements for any child over five years old unless they agreed to abandon their religious convictions.”

The court said, “The situation would be no different if the state had restricted parental speech favoring more ‘progressive’ views of sexuality and gender identity, while compelling speech along the lines of [the DeGrosses’] more traditional understanding.”

Further, the court said, “If Washington is to respect the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise, it cannot impose regulations that are hostile to the religious beliefs of affected citizens and cannot act in a manner that passes judgment upon or presupposes the illegitimacy of religious beliefs and practices.”