Christian discrimination appeared at play as a couple deemed “uniquely dedicated” to fostering young children lost their license to their state’s commitment to the rainbow religion.
(Video Credit: CBS Boston)
Many have viewed the zealotry with which leftist elected officials and talking heads adhere to gender ideology as affirmation that alphabet activism has become the religion of the secular state. Now, its inability to coexist with Christian norms found a Woburn, Massachusetts couple no longer licensed to foster children for their refusal to sign a clause pre-affirming a hypothetical child’s preferred identity.
“We were told you must sign the form as is or you will be delicensed,” Lydia Marvin explained to WBZ-TV as she and her husband, Heath Marvin, who’d fostered eight children under the age of four since 2020, had had their license taken away from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF).
The clause is at odds with the Christian couple’s demand that they “support, respect, and affirm a foster child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”
“We will absolutely love and support and care for any child in our home, but we simply can’t agree to go against our Christian faith in this area,” explained Lydia as her husband told the outlet, “Our Christian faith, it really drives us toward that.”
“[The Book of James] says that true, undefiled religion is to care for the fatherless,” said Heath, who recounted how the care for one of their foster kids with medical needs found them, “Every night for 15 months, we were up at least three times.”
Lydia expressed, “We certainly thought we would have young children in our home for how long we didn’t know, but we were not done having young children in our home.”
As even their DCF social worker had described the couple as “uniquely dedicated,” the Marvins are considering taking legal action. Currently, Alliance Defending Freedom, Massachusetts Family Institute’s Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center and First & Fourteenth PLLC have a federal lawsuit against DCF with two other Christian foster families.
“Even though DCF is desperately short on foster families, it now requires every family to promise that they will use a child’s chosen pronouns, encourage a child to transition socially and medically, and otherwise affirm a child’s stated gender identity when it conflicts with the child’s sex,” asserted the lawsuit brought on behalf of the Jones and the Schrock families. “Both families will provide a loving and respectful home for any child, including transgender, gay, or lesbian foster children. But that is insufficient for Massachusetts.”
The Marvins case had garnered the attention of President Donald Trump’s administration, as a letter from the Administration for Children & Families under the Department of Health and Human Services at the end of September to DCF Commissioner Staverne Miller had read in part, “No child is made safer when the state shuns willing, stable, and loving homes. No child is better off when hyper-partisan policies are placed above permanency and what is best for the child.”
“America has always stood for the freedoms to believe, to speak, and to live according to one’s conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs. These freedoms are not obstacles to child welfare. They are its foundation,” wrote ACF acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. “When we begin to exclude loving families from adoption based on ideological, religious litmus tests, we do more than violate the First Amendment. We betray the very ideals that have made our nation’s child protection system a beacon of hope for vulnerable children.”
Meanwhile, GLAD Director of Family Advocacy Polly Crozier defended the policy to WBZ-TV as she said, “The state has an obligation to make sure children are safe and well protected.”
“Foster parents are not parents — they’re a stopgap to ensure children can safely go back to their families of origin,” added Crozier, as a report from the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ youth contends that about 30% of foster children in the state claim some form of alphabet identity.
In their own statement on the matter, DCF had told the Boston Globe, “Foster homes are a refuge from serious child abuse and neglect and a place for children to heal.”
“The Department of Children and Families works in partnership with foster parents to understand a child’s trauma and to meet their physical and emotional needs by providing safe, consistent, and supportive relationships to thrive,” continued DCF.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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