Massachusetts is bowing to pressure from the Trump administration and dropping regulations that force would-be foster parents — even religious families — to affirm a child’s sexual orientation and gender identity in order to be licensed by the state and care for disadvantaged children. In September, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Massachusetts over its policy for licensing foster parents, and complaints from families that the state revoked the license of one couple and threatened to revoke the license of another because they would not promise to affirm a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The Bay State was sued by a conservative legal firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, on behalf of two of the families referenced by the Trump administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a similar policy in Oregon is unconstitutional.On Wednesday, the ADF said in a press release that Massachusetts is changing its foster parent policy.In a court filing, Massachusetts’s Department of Children and Families said that the federal agency that oversees foster care programs, the Administration for Children and Families, informed the agency that its regulation “violates the constitutional rights of applicants.”The DCF said it is issuing an amendment to its regulation “in order to preempt any potential escalation” by the Trump administration.“These amendments address ACF’s concerns, while continuing to meet DCF’s need for foster homes that support the identity and needs of children in its custody,” the DCF said. The regulation at issue stated that would-be foster parents had to “promote the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of a child placed in his or her care, including supporting and respecting a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”In the amendment filed by the DCF, the words “sexual orientation or gender identity” are replaced with “individual identity and needs.”A senior counsel for ADF, Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, said in a statement, “Massachusetts has told us that this new regulation will no longer exclude Christian and other religious families from foster care because of their commonly held beliefs that boys are boys and girls are girls.”He said that his clients are planning to reapply for their licenses and called the change a “step in the right direction.” But he added that the ADF’s lawsuit will “not end” until it is “positive that Massachusetts is committed to respecting religious persons and ideological diversity among foster parents.”
