Anti-LGBTQ+ mom in Oregon wins right to potentially adopt LGBTQ+ kids

An Oregon woman has been granted the right to foster and adopt even after refusing to comply with the state's law protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ children.

Jessica Bates of Malheur County, a widow and mother of five biological children, applied to become a foster parent through the Oregon Department of Human Services in 2023, asserting that God (the Christian one) had sent her a message to adopt more children. Bates was disqualified when she said she wold not follow a state policy protecting the welfare of children that requires foster parents to affirm the identities of LGBTQ+ youth in their care.

Bates sued the state for supposedly violating her religious belief, losing her initial case. She then appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 in her favor Thursday. The case will now be sent back to the district court, with the appeals court ordering the judge to reconsider the case with "strict scrutiny" — a form of judicial review used to evaluate the constitutionality of laws, which usually ends in the court striking down the law.

Judge Richard Clifton, an appointee of George W. Bush, was the lone vote against. He argued in his dissenting opinion that the case involved Bates' treatment of children, not her religious beliefs.

"Oregon has concluded that children for whom it is responsible should be placed only with adults who promise to respect the gender identity of the child as the child gets older and develops such identity. ... As a result, Oregon requires a commitment from a prospective foster parent, before that person is given custody of a child for whom Oregon is responsible, that the applicant will not act contrary to the child’s interest. Bates refused to make that commitment," Clifton wrote.

The judge referenced Bates' assertions that she would not use a child's chosen name or pronouns, nor would she allow them to dress how they'd like. She maintained that she would not take them to a doctor for gender dysphoria treatment, and said in an interview with KGW that if a child came out to her as LGBTQ+, she would "remind them of Christ."

Over 30 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+ and five percent as transgender, according to a 2019 study from Children's Rights, compared to 11.2 percent and 1.17 percent of youth not in foster care.

"The only limitation imposed by the state in declining to approve her application to foster a child concerns her treatment of the child, not what she personally believes, how she speaks to the world, or how she practices her faith," Clifton continued. "Oregon should be permitted to put the best interests of the child for which it is responsible paramount in making the decision to place one of its children in the custody of a foster applicant."

Bates is represented by the so-called Alliance Defending Freedom, a group dubbed a “Christian legal army” by its founder, which has a long history of opposing civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ people and has been dubbed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

The group, which believes the “homosexual agenda” will destroy society, has played a pivotal role in several cases involving abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights, including the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the right to an abortion nationally, as well as Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado and 303 Creative, Inc. v. Elenis, which validated discrimination against LGBTQ+ customers on the basis of religious views.

"Parents would not be expected to entrust their children to caregivers who volunteer that they will not respect the child’s self-determined gender identity, if that is something the parents have decided is important," he concluded. "Oregon should not be powerless to protect children for whom it has parental responsibility and for whom it has decided respect should be given."