In order to defend her First Amendment rights, a mother of five from Oregon alleges that her gender-conforming religious views prevented her from adopting a set of siblings in her state.
Jessica Bates said on “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday that the difficulty started after she had been in the adoption process for a few months and had finished some of the training.
“[I] reported to my certifier because they really emphasized the sexual orientation and gender identity training, that you have to support it,” she said.
“I emailed her and told her I couldn’t do that because of my faith, and then we had a phone call and, because I wouldn’t take a child for cross-sex hormone injections, I was basically told that I’m ineligible to adopt in the state of Oregon.”
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The adoption application for Oregon states that prospective parents must “respect, accept and support… the sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression” of children.
The state’s actions, according to Christina Kiefer, senior attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, are just another instance of placing “ideology and politics over children.”
Following allegations that she was denied the opportunity to adopt due to her religious convictions regarding gender and sexuality, a Christian mother filed a federal complaint against representatives of the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) on Monday.
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