CV NEWS FEED // California’s enforcement of a bill passed in 2023 is excluding Christian parents and those with traditional views on sexuality from fostering children, a parental advocacy group warns.
According to a press release from the California Family Council (CFC), the bill, SB-407, written by California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), states that foster parents must affirm the self-declared gender identity or sexual orientation of children in their care.
Now, foster care agencies are enforcing the bill and denying parents’ applications. A letter to all state foster care agencies states: “Each resource family must have the capacity, ability, and willingness to safeguard a child’s or non-minor dependent’s personal rights and respect and honor the child’s identities regardless of their own values and beliefs.”
The letter says that a refusal to affirm these identities is a “risk or threat” to the child.
The CFC relates that a foster father reached out to the organization after he and his wife’s application was rejected even though they had fostered multiple children over several years.
“Despite their history of offering loving homes, their social worker denied the renewal of their foster care license because they could not commit to affirming any identity a child might choose,” CFC writes. “This was a marked departure from previous practices, where their beliefs were accommodated, and they were not assigned LGBTQ-identified children.”
Kevin Snider, chief counsel for the Pacific Justice Institute, warned that legislation sets a dangerous precedent for all families in the state.
“The implications of SB 407 and the recent Directive from the Dept. of Social Services is that foster families holding religious or traditional views on gender and sexual orientation are unqualified to provide care for foster children,” Snider said. “California parents may think, ‘This doesn’t concern me — I’m not a foster parent.’
“In fact, it does concern you. There is now a very small step for the state to deem any parent as unfit to raise their own children if the family holds a view that contradicts the state’s ideology on gender and sexual orientation. This could result in a visit by Child Protective Services with tragic consequences for the home.”
CFC consistently lobbied against the bill, and the organization’s President Greg Burt was disappointed that lawmakers ignored religious liberty concerns.
‘“California is already struggling with a foster parent shortage, yet Senator Wiener and his allies are driving away faithful families who provide stable, loving homes,” said Burt. “This law doesn’t just hurt foster children — it actively discriminates against foster parents who are willing to love and care for any child but refuse to compromise their deeply held religious beliefs.”
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