The state is the latest to eliminate policies requiring foster parents to affirm youths’ sexual orientation and gender identity amid legal pressure.
Washington state can no longer require foster parents to provide supportive and affirming homes for LGBTQ+ youth, according to the terms of a legal settlement reached last week.
The original lawsuit was filed in 2024 by Shane and Jennifer DeGross, who sued the state over foster parent licensing requirements that said they must use the preferred pronouns of youth in their care.
The couple said their attempt to renew their license was denied over this policy after nine years of fostering. Holding them to this policy, they argued, violated constitutional rights to religious freedom and equal protection under the law.
Department of Children, Youth, and Families Secretary Tana Senn said last week’s settlement allows her department to respect the religious beliefs of foster parents while ensuring a safe environment for LGBTQ+ youth in the state’s custody.
“We are proud of the diversity of our foster parent and kinship caregiver community who have different cultures, religious beliefs, and lived experience,” Senn said in a press release. “We are grateful that they all open their doors and provide a loving home to children and youth in foster care.”
This suit and similar cases in other states have been part of a yearslong attempt to push back against policies designed to make the foster care system feel safe and accepting for LGBTQ+ kids and teens.
Lawyers with the conservative law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the DeGrosses, lauded the settlement as a win against what they call “discriminatory” policies.
“Washington’s policy failed to respect religious diversity because it singled out applicants with traditional religious beliefs on the sanctity of the human body,” attorney Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said in a press release. “We are thrilled to see common sense and religious liberty prevail.”
This suit and similar cases in other states have been part of a yearslong attempt to push back against policies designed to make the foster care system feel safe and accepting for LGBTQ+ kids and teens. Research shows these children account for one-third of all foster youth, young people who have been placed in homes where they’ve reported feeling unsafe with foster parents who disagree with their identities.
Under the settlement, the child welfare agency cannot require foster parents to “use prescribed words or language, including pronouns” or to express views on sexual orientation or gender identity that are “inconsistent with sincerely held religious belief” in order to be approved for a foster parent license.
The state, or private foster care agencies it contracts with, are also barred from denying foster care licenses to people solely based on their views on “marriage, gender or sexual relationships.”
The state will have to revise its current policies to reflect these changes. The court also ruled that the updated policies must state that foster parents may not impede child welfare authorities or supportive adults from helping children connect to community-based resources that support their sexual or gender orientation, or other aspects of their identity, such as race, religion and culture.
The settlement also does not require Senn’s department to place LGBTQ+ children in the homes of foster parents who are religiously opposed to their identities.
“When a foster parent, for whatever reason, cannot meet a child’s needs,” including due to the child’s sexual or gender identity, “DCYF can decide not to place with that foster parent,” the department’s press release explains.
Washington is not the only state that has responded to pressure from such lawsuits in recent months. Both Vermont and Massachusetts recently agreed to similar settlements that dial back policies protecting LGBTQ+ youth from being discriminated against in their foster homes. Another case in Oregon is ongoing.
Many of these cases are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom — which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a “designated hate group” for its anti-LGBTQ+ focus— and similar conservative, right-wing law firms.
Plaintiffs in these cases now, too, have the support of the Trump administration. The federal Administration for Children and Families sent letters last fall to New York, Vermont, Illinois, California, Washington, Oregon and Massachusetts calling their gender-affirming policies unconstitutional and demanding they be “corrected without delay.”
Michael Fitzgerald contributed to this report.
