Vermont Revises Foster Care Guidance After Legal Challenge
A challenge to Vermont’s foster care licensing policies has now been dismissed with prejudice following a settlement between the parties in the case Wuoti v. Winters. The dismissal comes after the State of Vermont issued revised guidance addressing the concerns raised in the lawsuit by plaintiffs and by WoLF and other amicus parties.
This is a significant development.
WoLF filed an amicus brief opposing the challenged guidance which required applicants to affirm gender identity beliefs as a condition of licensure.
What the Case Was About
While the plaintiffs - two married couples - raised the issue on religious freedom grounds, WoLF wanted to spotlight the broader harms of compelling ideological conformity in foster care, especially for girls, and gender non-conforming or same-sex-attracted youth.
The policy at issue, adopted by the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF), mandated that foster parents “affirm” a child’s stated gender identity and express belief in gender ideology. The policy also prohibited any exemption from these requirements, even for infants or emergency care placements.
WoLF’s brief focused on the constitutional, scientific, and social harms of these mandates, especially for youth who are gender non-conforming (GNC) or same-sex attracted. We argued that Vermont’s rules were not neutral policies concerned only with the best interests of the children - they were ideological enforcement mechanisms, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
What Changed
In response to the litigation, Vermont issued new guidance. The revised policy explicitly states that licensing does not require (the following is verbatim):
Endorsement or affirmation of specific identities
Agreement with particular viewpoints
Use of particular vocabulary, prescribed language, or preferred pronouns related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or identity expression
Answers to certain hypothetical ideological or future-speech scenarios
Discussion of medical decisions that caregivers cannot independently make
Agreement to facilitate medical appointments or procedures related to gender affirming care
Personal agreement with, or adoption of, specific terminology, identity frameworks, or expressive practices as a condition of licensure, so long as the caregiver's conduct remains respectful, non-coercive, and consistent with safety requirements.
What Did Not Change
This new guidance explicitly refers only to eligibility for licensure, and does not address placement of particular children with particular families. The state left itself broad power to continue to use ideological discrimination when deciding which families children will be placed with when viewpoints on these issues are relevant (i.e. when children are already in the gender pipeline). It is a virtual certainty that children who are already in the gender pipeline will be placed with families who affirm belief in gender ideology. There is still no room in Vermont’s system for secular concerns about child development, psychological well-being, or safeguarding.
The bright side of this caveat is that young people who are same-sex attracted and/or identify as LGB, will almost certainly be placed with families that are able to provide at least a somewhat supportive environment. Since homophobia is deeply woven into gender ideology, hopefully being in a supportive environment will make these young people less likely to feel a need to reject their sexuality by trying to “transition” to the opposite sex.
However, WoLF also has concerns about aspects of the original rules as they relate to DCF’s treatment of LGB issues, and those will still be in effect for placement decisions. The rules require foster parents to support - or at least “facilitate” - a child’s participation in Pride events.
Some Pride events have overtly adult content, but even those that are more family-friendly can be hostile toward members of the “LGBTQ” community who have beliefs against gender ideology. Women and lesbians in particular who challenge gender ideology at Pride events are increasingly being ejected, censored, and harassed. As our brief documents, gender-critical lesbians have been banned from Dyke Marches, removed from Pride events by police, and slandered as hate groups - simply for affirming that same-sex attraction means what it says.
Why This Matters
Foster care exists to serve vulnerable children in need of stable homes. Narrowing the pool of prospective parents based on political or philosophical views does not serve children.
Foster parents should not have to pretend that boys can become girls in order to provide a safe home. Children should not be indoctrinated into ideas that confuse and medicalize normal variations in personality and behavior. And women should not be punished for refusing to lie about sex.
In addition, a settlement in this case - especially one where the result is so favorable - is a better outcome than having the court decide. If the court overturned the guidance, it would leave Vermont foster care workers without any specific guidance (in which case, they might still continue on with the same policy, now unwritten) on this topic. Instead, the plaintiffs were able to be stakeholders in the process, and the state revised it’s guidance knowing that if it still had the same deficiencies,
While we shared the plaintiffs’ concerns about compelled belief, WoLF’s position was secular and focused holistically on the harms of gender ideology. Our sisters in action include lesbian and bisexual women, radical feminists, detransitioners, and others harmed by the erasure of sex in law and policy. We believe that children deserve evidence-based care, not political experiments. And we believe that truth - not ideology - should guide our institutions.
Read the revised guidance here.
Read WoLF’s full amicus brief here.
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For over 10 years, WoLF has been on the forefront of this fight, pushing back both against liberal indoctrination of gender identity and conservative narratives of gender roles. We unapologetically put women and girls first!
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