A Christian mom of 5 is taking legal action against Oregon state officials for supposedly denying her application to embrace children because of her faiths about gender and sexuality.
Alliance Defending Liberty (ADF) submitted the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on Monday on behalf of Jessica Bates, a single mom who lost her spouse to a car collision 6 years back. The suit accuses officials with the Oregon Department of Human Solutions (ODHS) of violating the First and Fourteenth Changes by using state policy to press secular views of gender and sexuality, which eventually bars Bible-believing Christians from embracing or fostering kids in the state.
The problem alleges that state authorities told Bates during the adoptive moms and dad training process that she should comply with a state policy mandating that she follow secular ideals in raising her adopted child:
[Bates must] respect, accept and support the race, ethnicity, cultural identities, national origin, migration status, sexual preference, gender identity, gender expression, impairments, spiritual beliefs, and socioeconomic status, of a child or young adult in the care or custody of the Department, and supply chances to boost the favorable self-concept and understanding of the kid or young person’s heritage.
Training suggestions in line with state policy need moms and dads to use a kid’s “preferred pronouns” and suggest that prospective parents ought to show “‘hate-free zone’ indications or symbols suggesting and LGBTQ-affirming environment (e.g. pink triangle, rainbow, or ally flag),” “whether or not a youth in your care freely recognizes as LGBTQ+.”
“One handout Jessica got directs caregivers to’ [c] elebrate diversity in all types,’ and’ [p] rovide access to a variety of books, films, and products, consisting of those that positively represent same-gender relationships,'” the problem states. “The handout … also mentions that’ [r] especting [a kid’s] gender identity and expression is very essential,’ and moms and dads should prevent ‘requiring youth to go to activities (consisting of spiritual activities …) that are … unsupportive of individuals with diverse SOGIE.”‘
Bates, who was intending to embrace a sibling set from the state’s foster care system, informed ODHS that she will happily love and accept any kid, however she can not state or do something that breaks her Christian faith, according to the grievance:
Like many people of faith, Jessica believes that our biological sex carries spiritual significance for who we are and how we should act. Jessica can not verify that a male is or should attempt to be female or vice versa. So Jessica signaled the Department that she will happily enjoy and accept any child for who they are, but she can not say or do anything against her Christian faith. The state then put Jessica to an option: abandon your religious convictions or forgo the possibility of ever embracing any child.
The ODHS eventually declined her application, apparently sending a rejection letter that mentioned her belief that “God offers us our gender/sex and it’s not something we get to pick.” The rejection letter likewise supposedly mentioned that Bates would not support the lifestyle and habits of a kid that might later on identify as gay or transgender and cited her spiritual objection to assisting in sex hormonal agent treatments for kids, the complaint states.
ADF Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs, director of the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives, described Oregon’s policy as a “base test”:
Oregon’s policy totals up to an ideological base test: people who hold nonreligious or ‘progressive’ views on sexual orientation and gender identity are eligible to take part in child welfare programs, while people of faith with consistently notified views are disqualified because they don’t concur with the state’s orthodoxy. The government can’t exclude specific communities of faith from foster care and adoption services since the state doesn’t like their specific faiths.
ADF is eventually arguing that ODHS’s policy punishes Bates for her spiritual views, obliges her to speak words that violate her beliefs, and denies her of equivalent security of the law since of her faith.
ADF Legal Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse expanded on this point, saying:
Oregon’s policy makes a sweeping claim that all individuals who hold specific religious beliefs– beliefs held by countless Americans from diverse spiritual faiths– are categorically unfit to look after kids. That’s merely not true. Oregon is putting its political program above the requirements of countless kids who would be happy to grow up in a caring, Christian house like Jessica’s. We prompt the court to advise the state of its constitutional and moral commitments and declare Jessica’s First Modification right to live out her faith without being punished by the federal government.
ADF is asking the court to release a statement that the state’s policy connected to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression breaks Bates’ and others’ constitutionally safeguarded right to free speech, totally free association, assembly, spiritual workout, and equivalent protection of the law.
Lawyers are also asking for a preliminary and irreversible injunction to state authorities from implementing the state’s policy against Bates or any other individual through the adoption and foster process.
The case is Bates v. Paksereshtin the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Pendleton Division.