New Law Forces Parents to Abandon Religious Beliefs to Become Foster Parents

It is established case law from the Supreme Court on down that the government cannot make services or funding contingent on political beliefs or withhold services based on them.

In other words, there are not supposed to be loyalty oaths in this country. But California’s new law requiring foster parents to “affirm” the sexuality and gender identity of kids as a condition for caring for them is leading to a purge of Christian families from the foster care system, according to Christian groups and conservative leaders.

The law, SB 407, was enacted in 2023 and sponsored by California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) with this exact purpose in mind: to weed out Christian families from the foster system because he depicted them, without offering any specific evidence, as predators who would abuse gay and transgender kids under his care.

But the law’s requirement that foster families sign a document affirming the gender and sexual orientation of kids only seems to have been implemented in recent weeks with a directive last month from California Department of Social Services telling case managers to make case foster parents sign the document.

The  November 14 letter, sent  to county and state-licensed foster care agencies, said that “Each resource family must have the capacity, ability, and willingness to safeguard a child’s or non-minor dependent’s personal rights and respect and honor the child’s identities regardless of their own values and beliefs.”

And that a failure to affirm the identity constitutes “a risk” to the child’s “health or safety” which would require denial of foster care applications or cancellation of existing licenses.

This directive has already led to Christian families being purged from the system, according to Greg Burt of the California Family Council, a conservative Christian group in Fresno.

Burt told the California Globe that “This is exactly what we knew would happen.”

Burt said prior to the enactment of the law, Christian foster parents told case workers that they could provide a loving home to any child regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. But they did not want to make explicit affirmations of the child’s identity since that would transgress their religious beliefs. And this posture seemed to satisfy everyone.

But not anymore.

Christian parents, he recounted, “said they would provide a loving home but  could not affirm whatever the identity they come up. That seemed to be the working. That satisfied the social worker. But that is not the case anymore. You can not be neutral. Even if you are doing foster care for little kids” who don’t have a sexuality of gender identity anyway.”

Burt has also said that the California Family Council recently got a call from a foster father who with his wife had provided foster care to lots of young children over the years. But a social worker refused to renew their foster care license because they could not promise to affirm kids’ identity.

He described the new rules as government-conscripted speech in violation of the federal constitution. “You will say what the government wants you to say. Even if it violates your religious beliefs.  That is compelled speech. Compelled speech violates the First Amendment.”

Kevin Snider, chief counsel of the conservative Pacific Justice Institute in Garden Grove, California, said in a press release that the new law could lead to a slippery slope to even more encroachment on families.

“The implications of SB 407 and the recent Directive from the Dept. of Social Services is that foster families holding religious or traditional views on gender and sexual orientation are unqualified to provide care for foster children,” Snider contended.  “California parents may think, ‘This doesn’t concern me — I’m not a foster parent.’ In fact, it does concern you. There is now a very small step for the state to deem any parent as unfit to raise their own children if the family holds a view that contradicts the state’s ideology on gender and sexual orientation. This could result in a visit by Child Protective Services with tragic consequences for the home.”

Pasadena family attorney Kelly Chang Rickert, who handles foster adoptions, told the California Globe that the law violates the First Amendment. “The law forces parents to abandon religious beliefs to become foster parents which is a violation of the First amendment. They state can not force you to abandon your ideology.”

Rickert said SB 407 violates a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that ruled unconstitutional the City of Philadelphia’s policy to  deny contracts to Catholic foster agencies that would not certify same-sex couples as couples.   The Court ruled that the policy violated the First Amendment rights of the Catholic foster agencies to free exercise of religion.

“The state of California is doing the same thing” as Philadelphia, she said. “Unless you affirm LGBT ideology you will not become foster parents.”

Rickert added that her firm was recently contacted by someone denied the ability to be a foster parent under the new law and that person is considering a lawsuit.

Sen. Scott Wiener did not reply to a request for comment.