Washington foster care parents Shane and Jennifer DeGross. (Alliance Defending Freedom)
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A Christian couple who spent more than a decade caring for foster children is celebrating a major legal victory after Washington state agreed to change its licensing rules following a dispute over requirements that foster parents use children’s preferred pronouns and comply with gender identity policies, even when those requirements conflicted with their religious beliefs.
Shane and Jennifer DeGross told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that the dispute began in 2022, when they attempted to renew their foster care license and discovered the state had changed its requirements concerning gender identity.
The couple said they were willing to love and care for any child placed in their home but could not agree to certain state-imposed requirements they believed violated their Christian faith.
“We were made aware that the state had updated and changed some of their requirements,” Jennifer DeGross told Fox News Digital. “While we agreed that we would love and care for any child in our home, they had specific things that we could not agree to as Christians.”
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Washington foster care parents Shane and Jennifer DeGross said they hope their victory helps other foster parents with sincerely held religious beliefs. (Alliance Defending Freedom)
Shane DeGross said the state required them to affirm the state’s views on gender identity and human sexuality.
“Those views directly conflict with the biblical worldview of human sexuality,” Shane DeGross said. “So, as Christians, we just couldn’t accept that. Our allegiance is to God and the truth of Scripture. And we just couldn’t abide by what they were requiring us to affirm.”
Washington’s licensing policies required foster parents to affirm and support LGBTQ children, including expectations concerning gender identity and the use of preferred names and pronouns. The DeGross family challenged the requirements on religious freedom grounds. Jennifer said the state eventually partially reinstated their license but restricted the ages of children they could foster.
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“We felt like even when they reinstated a partial license to us that they were still discriminating against us,” she said.
“When a child reached 5, they had to be removed from our home,” Jennifer said. “So not only was that upsetting to us, but that’s not good for kids, right?”
Jennifer argued that such a restriction could disrupt a child’s placement even if the child had already spent years living with a foster family.
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Washington State has a new state regulation currently undergoing the public notice and comment process which would in part give foster parents like Shane and Jennifer DeGross a religious exemption from any rule requiring them to violate their religious beliefs on gender or sexuality. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“If we had had a child for a couple of years, and then they have to be removed just because they turned or reached a certain age, it’s definitely not in the interest of children,” she said.
The legal battle resulted in a settlement under which Washington agreed to revise its foster care licensing rules, addressing the conflict between the state’s gender identity requirements and foster parents’ religious freedom claims.
Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told Fox News Digital that the DeGross’ case should serve as a lesson for the rest of the country.
“These foster care agencies, they have to respect the First Amendment rights of foster parents, as well as the children in the system and everyone that they work with,” Widmalm-Delphonse said.
“So, states should be on notice from this settlement, as well as some of the other cases that we’ve seen like the Bates v. Pakseresht decision, that they have to respect First Amendment rights, they have to respect free speech rights, and the way you do that is you invite as many foster parents into the system as possible on the front end, and then you match at the back end according to children’s individual needs or family’s abilities, comfort level, things like that, which is what they’ve been doing for decades, and this settlement shows that they can continue doing that now,” Widmalm-Delphonse added.
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Jennifer DeGross said that when a child turned 5, they had to be removed from her home, which was upsetting for her and her family, and the foster children involved. (iStock)
Widmalm-Delphonse said that since the settlement, Washington State has a new proposed regulation, WSR 26-20-103, currently undergoing the public notice and comment process which would in part give foster parents like Shane and Jennifer DeGross a religious exemption.
“This new rule, in part, would give foster parents like the DeGross’s a religious exemption from any rule requiring them to violate their religious beliefs on gender or sexuality,” Widmalm-Delphonse said.
Shane DeGross told Fox News Digital, “It’s a great victory in the sense that more Christians can be available to love and care for foster kids without fear of being excluded because of their religious beliefs.”
“It’s a huge victory for kids that need a loving home,” he added.
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“We are proud of the diversity of our foster parent and kinship caregiver community who have different cultures, religious beliefs, and lived experience,” the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families said in a news release on the settlement. “We are grateful that they all open their doors and provide a loving home to children and youth in foster care.”
“This settlement agreement respects the religious beliefs of foster parents, while ensuring LGBTQIA+ youth are placed in an environment that is safe and supports their well-being,” DCYF Secretary Tana Senn said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Washington DCYF for further comment.
