Woman hoping to adopt foster children sues Oregon over LGBTQ expectations

A single mother of five in Malheur County has filed a federal lawsuit against Oregon state officials for denying her application to adopt foster care siblings, she says because of her religious beliefs.

The lawsuit was filed by Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Jessica Bates in the Pendleton Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

The lawsuit describes Bates as a Christian who regularly attends a nondenominational church where she worships with her family. In the process of applying to become certified to adopt from the state foster care system, she refused to agree to "respect, accept, and support … the sexual orientation, gender identity, [and] gender expression" of any child the department could place in an applicant's home because of her faith, according to the lawsuit.

Alliance Defending Freedom is a nonprofit legal organization focused on protecting religious beliefs, particularly as it relates to LGBTQ and abortion issues. It has won nearly 80% of its cases, including 14 at the Supreme Court since 2011, according to its website.

What the lawsuit alleges

The 41-page lawsuit claims the policy of the Oregon Department of Human Services, the agency responsible for the administration of child welfare programs, penalizes Bates for her religious views. State officials rejected Bates' application for failing to meet its "adoption home standards."

"Oregon's policy amounts to an ideological litmus test: people who hold secular or 'progressive' views on sexual orientation and gender identity are eligible to participate in child welfare programs, while people of faith with religiously informed views are disqualified because they don't agree with the state's orthodoxy," said Jonathan Scruggs, senior counsel and director of the Center for Conscience Initiatives with ADF. "The government can't exclude certain communities of faith from foster care and adoption services because the state doesn't like their particular religious beliefs."

Not her first lawsuit against Oregon

The lawsuit explains how Bates felt a calling to follow the biblical teaching to care for orphans after hearing a Christian broadcast about a man who adopted a foster child. She was inspired even though she was already raising five children, ages 10 to 17, on her own.

Her husband, David, was killed in a car crash in 2017. The driver of the other car, Anthony Montwheeler, had recently been released from the Oregon State Hospital, abducted and killed his ex-wife, then crashed into the Bates' vehicle during a police pursuit.

Montwheeler is serving a life sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Jessica Bates filed a civil lawsuit against Montwheeler in 2017, then a wrongful death lawsuit in 2018 against several institutions, including the Oregon State Hospital and Oregon Health Authority. She was awarded a judgment of more than $540,000 in the civil case.

The wrongful death case was dismissed.

The lawsuit filed this week lists five defendants with the Oregon Department of Human Services: director Fariborz Pakseresht; deputy director Liesl Wendt; Aprille Flint-Gerner, Child Welfare Division interim director; Rebecca Garrison, certification supervisor for the DHS Malheur County office; and Cecilia Garcia, certification officer for the DHS Malheur County office.

Conflict during training

The lawsuit claims Oregon officials look down on those with traditional beliefs about human sexuality. Bates alerted DHS during her application process that she will happily love and accept any child, but she cannot say or do something that goes against her Christian faith.

She discovered during training that her faith might conflict with some of the department's expectations. According to the lawsuit, an instructor explained during a class that adoptive parents must use a child's stated pronouns and affirm a child's gender identity even if the child's identity does not align with their biological sex.

The lawsuit says the instructor provided illustrative examples of how parents ought to support a child's sexual orientation or gender identity, such as allowing a child to dress however they want and taking them to a Pride parade.

The lawsuit points out examples of how the state does not require every applicant to show they are a suitable placement for any child. A family that hunts need not give up meat eating because some children are vegans, and Jews need not accommodate foreign gods because some children desire a home with a Hindu shrine, the lawsuit says.

"Oregon's policy makes a sweeping claim that all persons who hold certain religious beliefs — beliefs held by millions of Americans from diverse religious faiths — are categorically unfit to care for children," ADF Legal Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said. "That's simply not true. Oregon is putting its political agenda above the needs of countless children who would be happy to grow up in a loving, Christian home like Jessica's. We urge the court to remind the state of its constitutional and moral obligations and reaffirm Jessica’s First Amendment right to live out her faith without being penalized by the government."

Bates is seeking to adopt a sibling pair younger than 9, because her youngest child is currently 10.

The 2021 Oregon Child Welfare Data Book, the most recent available from DHS, shows 2,586 children in state custody as of the last day of fiscal year October 2020 to September 2021 were part of a sibling group.

Capi Lynn is a veteran reporter for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at clynn@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6710. Follow her work on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.