A mother of five has sued the US state of Oregon after it banned her from adopting children because of her Christian beliefs.
Jessica Bates had planned to adopt siblings from foster care last year.
She claims that her refusal to abandon her religious beliefs led to the rejection of her application by the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS).
Her lawyers say Ms. Bates could not agree to a condition that she “respect, accept, and support the sexual orientation and gender identity of any child placed in her home.”
She said in her application that she would “happily love and accept any child,” but could not say or do something that went against her Christian beliefs.
During her mandatory training to become an adoptive parent, she was told that “adoptive and resource parents must use a child’s stated pronouns and affirm a child’s gender identity if the child’s identity does not align with their biological sex.”
Ms. Bates was encouraged to “support a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity by allowing a child to dress however they want and taking them to a Pride parade.”
The Christian Post quotes her as telling her DHS certification officer: “I don’t know how many children there are out there under the age of 9 who fall into this category (and to me it’s kind of crazy that society is wanting to get kids thinking about this stuff at such young ages; I think we should let them keep their innocence), so this may not even be an issue, but I need to let you know I cannot support this behaviour in a child. I have no problem loving them and accepting them as they are, but I would not encourage them in this behaviour.”
Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) which is representing Ms. Bates, Jonathan Scruggs, claimed the Oregon state law was “an ideological litmus test.”
He explained that: “It allowed people who hold secular or ‘progressive’ views on sexual orientation and gender identity to be eligible to participate in child welfare programs, while people of faith with religiously informed views are disqualified because they don’t agree with the state’s orthodoxy.”
Mr. Scruggs argued that: “The government can’t exclude certain communities of faith from foster care and adoption services because the state doesn’t like their particular religious beliefs.”
ADF Legal Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse denounced the law’s “sweeping claim that all persons who hold certain religious beliefs — beliefs held by millions of Americans from diverse religious faiths — are categorically unfit to care for children.”
He insisted such an assertion is “simply not true” and accused Oregon of “putting its political agenda above the needs of countless children who would be happy to grow up in a loving, Christian home like Jessica’s.”
