Vermont foster parents sue state after license is revoked over opposition to trans ideology

July 24, 2024

A Vermont couple is suing the state after they say it revoked their license to serve as foster parents over their religiously-based opposition to LGBT ideology.

The Christian Post reports that Melinda Antenucci and Casey Mathieu have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont after their license to provide foster care was revoked. The suit names several employees at the Vermont Dept. of Children and Families who are accused of violating the couple’s constitutional rights.

The lawsuit accuses the State of Vermont of trying to force the couple to engage in compelled speech and of expressing hostility toward the couple’s deeply held religious beliefs, in violation of their First and Fourteenth Amendment protections.

Antenucci and Mathieu were willing to foster LGBT-identified children but had expressed concern over controversial psychological and medical treatments that a trans-identified child might request. Those treatments include “social transitioning, administration of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, or removal of healthy body parts.”

The couple’s hesitation prompted closer scrutiny from employees of the Vermont Dept. of Children and Families, including being asked by a staff member about hypothetical scenarios which could arise if they were to foster a trans-identified child.

Ultimately the state of Vermont gave the couple the choice of giving up their foster care license voluntarily or having it revoked. On July 1, the state revoked the license and gave the couple until August 1 to make an appeal.

According to the Christian Post, the lawsuit seeks nominal damages and attorneys’ fees as well as a ruling “Declaring Defendants’ policies as alleged herein unlawful on their face and as applied to Plaintiffs” and blocking the state from revoking the foster care license.

Photo: top, Credit: Unsplash/Guillaume de Germain