Massachusetts has scrapped its draconian foster care requirements that forced prospective parents to embrace radical LGBT ideology, including affirming gender confusion, using invented pronouns, and supporting medical mutilation of children.
This reversal came after a federal lawsuit filed in September 2025 by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on behalf of two devout Christian families who had successfully fostered dozens of children but were sidelined for refusing to compromise their biblical beliefs on sex and gender.
The original policy blatantly discriminated against faith-based applicants, demanding they reject biological reality in favor of gender fluidity, a stance that clashed with the families’ convictions that boys are boys and girls are girls. ADF attorney Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse lambasted the state for exacerbating the shortage of foster parents by enforcing this “ideological agenda,” arguing it deprived children of stable, loving environments rooted in traditional values.
This capitulation underscores the power of legal pushback against government overreach that undermines parental rights and the nuclear family. In response to the suit, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families amended its code to a neutral mandate of affirming a child’s “individual identity and needs,” stripping out the explicit LGBT mandates and opening the door for religious families to reapply without fear of persecution.
Widmalm-Delphonse hailed it as a “step in the right direction” but vowed continued vigilance to ensure ideological diversity and respect for religious convictions in the system, preventing future exclusions of qualified caregivers who uphold moral truths.