Vermont officials have adopted a revised foster-care policy clarifying that prospective foster parents are not required to “endorse or affirm specific identities” or use “preferred pronouns related to gender identity” as a condition of licensure, prompting attorneys for two Christian families to dismiss their appeal in a federal lawsuit.
The policy change follows litigation brought by two Vermont couples — Pastor Brian Wuoti and his wife, Katy, and Pastor Bryan Gantt and his wife, Rebecca — who argued that state officials violated their First Amendment rights by conditioning their foster-care licenses on agreeing to speak in ways that conflicted with their religious beliefs about gender and sexuality.
“In a win for foster families and religious freedom, Vermont officials have finalized a new policy clarifying that foster families need not abandon their religious beliefs or promote gender ideology to qualify as foster parents,” Alliance Defense Freedom (ADF), the legal advocacy organization representing the families, stated in a Feb. 23 press release.
The case, Wuoti v. Winters, had been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after a lower court ruling against the families, denying their motion for a preliminary injunction.
According to ADF, the families argued that officials required them “to speak in contrast to their beliefs on gender and sexuality as a condition of being licensed to care for vulnerable children.”
As part of the agreement, Vermont has agreed to rescind the decisions revoking the families’ licenses and to apply the updated nondiscrimination guidelines moving forward.
In the revised policy language cited by ADF, Vermont states that “endorsement or affirmation of specific identities” or the “use of particular vocabulary, prescribed language, or preferred pronouns related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or identity expression” is not a condition of licensure.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse called the outcome “an incredible victory for children in Vermont’s foster-care system.”
“No parent should be forced to lie to a vulnerable child about who they are, much less promote irreversible and life-altering procedures that don’t have any proven health benefits,” Widmalm-Delphonse said in the release. He added that “other loving families have been unable to open their homes to children in need just because of their Christian worldview” and commended Vermont for “ending its exclusionary policy.”
The Wuotis, who became foster parents in 2014 and adopted two brothers from foster care, said they were “thankful that common sense won out and that Vermont has changed its policy to put children’s interests above divisive ideologies.”
The Gantts, who began fostering in 2016 and have adopted three children, said their focus “throughout this case has been on the children who need stability and love above everything else.”
“There are more kids in the foster-care system than there are families to care for them,” the Gantts said. “We’re overjoyed that Vermont is doing right by the children in the system.”