A Christian mother in Oregon can now begin the process of adopting siblings from a foster home after winning her court case against the state that denied her application because she would not commit to taking the children to pride events or using their preferred pronouns. 

The mother, Jessica Bates, sought to adopt two siblings, who were under the age of 10, from a foster home in Oregon. However, in order to foster children in the state, prospective adoptive parents have to receive training and certification. The Oregon Department of Human Services denied Ms. Bates’s certification due to her opposition to the requirement that she “respect, accept, and support” a child’s gender identity.

Ms. Bates filed a challenge to the rejection in April 2023, arguing that the policy violated her rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion. 

On Thursday, a three-judge panel on the notoriously liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 in Ms. Bates’s favor, finding that the policy “burdens Bates’s religious exercise.”

In a statement, an attorney at the Alliance Defending Freedom, Jonathan Scruggs, said, “Every child deserves a loving home, and children suffer when the government excludes people of faith from the adoption and foster system. Jessica is a caring mom of five who is now free to adopt after Oregon officials excluded her because of her common-sense belief that a girl cannot become a boy or vice versa.”

“Because caregivers like Jessica cannot promote Oregon’s dangerous gender ideology to young kids and take them to events like pride parades, the state considers them to be unfit parents. That is false and incredibly dangerous, needlessly depriving kids of opportunities to find a loving home,” Mr. Scruggs said. “The 9th Circuit was right to remind Oregon that the foster and adoption system is supposed to serve the best interests of children, not the state’s ideological crusade.”

His comment about the pride parades is a reference to training material from the Oregon Department of Human Services that says parents can show their support for children’s gender identities by taking them to pride events or displaying pride flags in their homes. 

A lawyer for the state, Philip Thoennes, defended the policy, as he said there is “strong evidence” that the well-being of “LGBTQ children” depends on having supportive home environments. 

However, in the 9th Circuit’s ruling on Thursday, the court said, “Adoption is not a constitutional law dead zone. And a state’s general conception of the child’s best interest does not create a force field against the valid operation of other constitutional rights.”

The court ordered the state to reconsider Ms. Bates’s application in light of its finding that its policy violated her First Amendment rights.