Only LGBTQ-affirming foster parents need apply

Funny how “tolerance” turns to totalitarianism.

America has undergone a massive moral transitioning thanks to an incredibly well-funded LGBTQIA+++ movement. They enjoy a privilege that no other “marginalized” group has: a virtual total immunity from criticism. Mainstream media, public education, academia, professional sports, the entertainment industry, the Democratic Party, judges, legislators, the medical field, biblically-illiterate churches, RINOs, and child welfare workers all demand we bow to LGBTQ dogma.

We must butcher language, deny basic science, and worship a co-opted rainbow worldview or face the consequences. It’s all about “inclusion” they say as they legally and culturally obliterate the inclusion of faith-based individuals and organizations from fully participating in American life.

In state after state, groups like the ACLU and Lambda Legal have been trying to shut down faith-based adoption agencies for who they are (Christians) and who they love (vulnerable children who need a mom and a dad). These leftist groups have been successful in their crusade to harass and exclude Christian child welfare providers in Massachusetts, Illinois, and California. Recently, they’ve failed to force their doctrine onto the Christian faithful (see Fulton v. City of Philadelphia and New Hope Family Services v. Poole).

But state child welfare agencies are practicing the same discrimination, declaring if you’re not “LGBTQ-affirming” you’re not eligible to be a foster or adoptive parent. The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) demands “PRIDE training” and this directive: “All DCFS/POS staff, providers, and foster parents shall treat LGBTQ children and youth in an affirming manner and proactively work to create a respectful space.” New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) religiously proclaims the same: “ACS (New York City Administration for Children’s Services) is dedicated to building a system where all foster homes and family supports are LGBTQ-affirming.”

So, what if you don’t affirm homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality et al? You’re excluded, of course. Just in the last several months, two cases illuminate the reality that “LGBT rights” and the First Amendment cannot co-exist. In Massachusetts, Catholic couple Mike and Kitty Burke were denied their application to foster for not bowing. In Oregon, Jessica Bates – a widowed mother of five — was refused because of her “religious beliefs,” too.

This is exactly what The New York Times called for during the summer of 2021. In a fact-challenged article fretting over the Supreme Court’s (now issued) Sharonell Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia ruling, the “news” outlet made this deeply alarming statement: “Potential foster parents who agree to be chosen on an exclusionary basis would perpetuate anti-L.G.B.T.Q. stigmas. They would be unfit to provide foster care to L.G.B.T.Q. young people — or to their cisgender or straight peers.”

Let this sink in for a minute. Not only is The New York Times saying Christians shouldn’t be able to foster children who are gender-confused, but that they should be barred from fostering any child.

As an adoptee from the foster care system and now an adoptive father, this is so incredibly vile. The organization I cofounded with my amazing wife, Bethany, is passionate about adoption and foster care. For years, we have reached millions through our keynote talks, media interviews and online content at the Radiance Foundation and via our AdoptedAndLoved.com initiative. We’ve been warning the public about the radicalizing and racializing of our nation’s foster care system. We’ve sounded the alarm about the total capitulation of once-strong Evangelical organizations, like Bethany Christian Services, which now fully embrace same-sex adoptions and LGBTQ propaganda.

The social re-engineers in our child welfare system rule that we can only affirm sexual brokenness. Children in foster care are often there because of neglect and abuse. They’ve come from dysfunction. They don’t need to be shuttled to more dysfunction. Should prospective foster parents only be affirming of violent tendencies? Or eating disorders? Or drug addiction? Affirm the child, not the confusion. I’m grateful that my parents, who adopted 10 of their 13 children, didn’t embrace lies about who we were created to be. They loved us through our trauma and helped make it a reference point instead of a resting place.

The Supreme Court, by the way, unanimously ruled in the Fulton case in favor of Catholic Social Services and the plaintiff, Sharonell Fulton. She is an extraordinary single woman who had fostered over 40 children. Thanks to Becket, the incredible public-interest legal and educational institute, vulnerable children and loving foster parents were victorious. The law firm is now representing the Burke family in Massachusetts. Alliance Defending Freedom, which helped me win my landmark free speech case against the NAACP (yes, a civil rights group sued a brown guy for exercising one of my most basic civil rights!), has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jessica Bates.

#LoveIsLove has tragically brought us to this place in history where fully qualified parents who are willing to love the most vulnerable are being discriminated against. The LGBTQ movement is a steam-roller flattening centuries of basic human rights to extol its anti-science and narcissistic worldview. Its adherents have proven this in their relentless quest to erase women in sports, eliminate medical standards for gender-confused minors, nullify parental rights in public education, and remove gender in legal documents and our lexicon. Now, they’re using their privilege to deny foster children the ability to love and to be loved.