The state of Vermont has revoked the foster-care licenses of two Christian couples after they stated that, as a matter of Christian principle, they were not willing to support the state’s attempt to impose radical gender ideology.
Pastor Brian Wuoti and his wife Katy, along with Pastor Bryan Gantt and his wife Rebecca, were suspended from renewing their foster care licenses because of their religious belief that sex is created and innate, assigned at birth, not infinitely plastic, as taught by the new radical gender ideology, according to a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) against Vermont’s Department of Children and Families (DCF).
The Wuotis became foster parents in 2014 and successfully adopted two brothers from foster care. Social workers praised the family, calling the Wuotis “amazing” and saying they “probably could not have handpicked a more wonderful foster family.” But in 2022, Vermont revoked their license after they expressed doubt that they could encourage a child to “transition.”
Interestingly, Katy Wuoti had an experience with gender dysphoria in her own childhood. She said, “I was at a garage sale with my dad, and I really wanted this model car, and the homeowner came over and [mistaking Katy for a boy] said, ‘I think every little boy should have a model car,’ and every time I got mistaken for a boy, I was thrilled.”
“My dad said, 'She's a girl, but I do think she should have the model car,' and then he bought me the car," Wuoti said. “Him letting me like the things I liked and loving me for who I was, but not lying to me and . . . not encouraging me to hate my own body, is just the kind of love that I think children need.”
She has stated that she would handle any gender-atypical behavior in a foster child the same way her dad raised her: not forbidding the “tom boy” behavior in a girl, or girlish behavior in a boy, but also encouraging the child to accept their biological reality, and not reject his or her body and birth sex. But this was not good enough for Vermont’s Department of Children and Families.
“They want to require us to see things [in a way that goes] against what I know to be true in my own life,” Katy said. “I know that it's true that I felt loved and affirmed and secure in my own family, and we would love any child, we just couldn't say anything that went against our deeply held beliefs.”
Similarly, the Gantts became foster parents in 2016, and have since adopted three children out of the foster care system. The couple focused on caring for children born with drug dependencies or with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Last September, the state turned to them in an emergency situation, asking them to adopt a baby about to be born to a homeless woman who was addicted to drugs; the Gants jumped at the opportunity to help the child. Officials said the Gantts were “the perfect home” and the department’s “first choice” for this baby, but when the Gantts expressed concern about the department’s policy on gender identity, DCF refused to let the couple adopt the baby, and instead revoked their foster care licenses.
Apparently, Vermont DCF would rather disadvantaged children have no home than to place those children with families, such as the Wuotis and the Gantts, who deny the anti-Christian, absurd lie that males can become females, and females can become males.
“Because of my experience, it has really affected the way that I've seen this whole gender ideology push on children," Katy Wuoti said. “We absolutely love people, and one of the big things about our religion is that we absolutely believe that people are made in the image of God [which is male and female (Gen. 1:27)]. Every single person, everyone, is deserving of dignity and respect.”
Because the opioid crisis has brutally impacted New England’s working class, the foster-care system has more children who need placement than there are licensed foster care families willing to care for them; Vermont’s DCF has had to leave children in hospitals, police stations, and with caregivers who have not been properly vetted. But, apparently, enforcing radical gender ideology, and deranging the created sexual order, is more important to Vermont than taking care of children.
“We saw a great need for foster families due to the opioid crisis hitting our community when we decided to start fostering children in 2016,” said Pastor Gantt. “Throughout the years, Vermont’s Department of Child and Families has sent out many emails stating that the state is in a crisis and desperately needs more families to stand in the gap for the children in the system. We’ve adopted three children from foster-care who we love with all our hearts.”
“We always had great relationships with DCF social workers, but that didn’t matter when Vermont asked us to change our religious views in order to continue as foster parents. Vermont puts its ideology above the well-being of kids. We hope that our license will get restored and that Vermont will end its discriminatory policy and allow religious families like us to continue serving children in need.”
“This case is about Vermont turning its back on its most vulnerable citizens, the children in need, while trampling our constitutional rights, all in the name of an ideological agenda,” said Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The Wuotis and the Gantts, “were model foster parents for years, and they adopted children from the foster care system,” Yet Vermont’s DCF “turned them away just because they couldn't say things that went against their beliefs, like inaccurate pronouns or telling a child to reject their body.”
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Gen. 1:27