(RepublicanReport.org) – In March, the Administration for Children and Families released its annual US Foster Care and Adoption statistics report. It showed there were over 368,500 kids in the foster care system at the end of the 2022 fiscal year. Foster kids in the care of the government rely on families to foster those children and give them the love they need. Two Christian couples recently lost their foster care license in Vermont and subsequently sued.
On June 4, Brian and Kaitlyn Wuoti and Michael and Rebecca Grant sued multiple Vermont officials for refusing to renew their licenses. The plaintiffs claim the officials wouldn’t grant them permission to foster because of their oppositional feelings about transgender individuals. The couples said they base their views on the Christian faith and allege that the state’s “policy violates constitutional rights.”
Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse is helping the couples with the case. He said SCOTUS already ruled that states can’t compel “citizens to say something that they don’t believe” to obtain a “license or any kind of government benefit.” The attorney told The Christian Post that it’s Vermont’s job to “help [foster] children find a loving home,” so this policy is hurting the kids the most by denying these couples from providing such a place.
A spokesperson from the Vermont Department for Children and Families (VDCF) relayed a message to The Christian Post from Aryka Radke — one of the defendants named in the suit. It said that while the group doesn’t comment on pending litigation, “DCF takes the care and support of youth in [its] custody seriously.”
The statement said the department aims to ensure that all kids are put in the care of individuals who “support all aspects of what makes them who they are” — including “sexual orientation and gender identity.” Radke said being “valued and supported” for who you are “is a human right.”
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