The Biden administration seeks to cram the LGBTQ agenda down on religious foster families who seek to help troubled kids.
As reported by the website Florida Daily on Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is promoting a rule that would prohibit foster care systems in Florida and elsewhere from putting “LGBTQI+ identifying children” with foster parents who do not support those children’s “ability to express their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
The Biden administration asserts that the rule is necessary to give LGBTQ kids a “safe and appropriate placement.”
Republican senators have objected to the rule, saying the administration wants to force all foster families to accept its gender ideology or smear them in the process.
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They demand that the agency immediately ditch the proposal.
In a letter last week to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, the GOP lawmakers wrote that the department, through the proposal, is saying such families are “perpetuating and committing child abuse and will be shunned for failing to support the foster child’s ‘health and wellbeing.’”
“All children in foster care, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, deserve a safe and proper placement. However, this proposal goes beyond statutory requirements to force states to adopt extreme gender ideology in their placement decisions,” the lawmakers added. “Congress intentionally gave states the authority to make those determinations, but HHS has usurped that authority to impose its own woke ideology in place of states’ judgments.”
The senators also noted that HHS has compiled no evidence to support its claim that the current systems in the states hurt children and that the rule is purely “arbitrary.”
They also noted that the rule would create substantial strain on an already overburdened foster care system since religious families make up a large share of those willing to accept such children.
“Research shows that when faith-based providers are excluded, there are fewer good homes,” the senators told Bacerra, noting that more than 20% of foster-home providers do so because they are motivated by their religious beliefs.
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“We are deeply concerned about the chilling effect this proposal will have on prospective foster families, as this rule will likely result in a reduction in the pool of available providers and resource parents.”
Perhaps most importantly, however, is that the HHS plan would force religious families to claim they are “unfit” to host children who need help.
“The Department’s proposal would put religious families and religious providers in the position of declaring themselves unfit placements for a subset of the foster care pool, in spite of their long track records of excellence in serving and loving all children who need help,” the lawmakers wrote.
“While purported to respect religious freedom, this proposed rule is a creative continuation of the Biden Administration’s campaign to undermine faith-based child welfare providers under the guise of ‘advancing equity.’”
The GOP lawmakers who signed the letter included Sens. Roger Marshall, Tom Cotton, John Barrasso, Markwayne Mullin, Mike Lee, and Cindy Hyde-Smith.
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