The article calls this a “complaint” rather than a “lawsuit” so I guess this is moot.
The couple seems to think people have the right to foster by default, and the regulation sets out conditions for when this right can be revoked.
I’m not sure of the actual law, but it seems to me that the right to foster should be granted on a case by case basis. Regulation should set the necessary requirements, but the department should have the final say on the sufficient requirements. And the department should be allowed to revoke an application for any reason or even no (stated) reason.
Like, you shouldn’t just have the right to foster by default.
The SW passed them through anyway, “with conditions” which likely include "just don’t give this couple any gay kids"
They were ultimately denied for reasons not stated
We actually have no other information about what they said apart from they don’t like gay or trans kids
I think point 2 kinda invalidates the lawsuit, and point 4 is going to become extremely relevant when we find out they were fine with hitting kids who misbehaved or something.
The state cannot start being allowed to make determinations about what religious groups may and may not adopt children. Thats fundamentally on so many levels not fucking ok.
We can and should as long as it’s based on relevant behavior not religious affiliation. If you don’t believe in using proscribed antibiotics you should not be caring for kids, for example. I don’t care if it’s because your god told you they were evil or because you think your healing crystals are better.
the determination should be based on your ability to care for the child emotionally, physically and psychologically. if you can’t do all 3, then you’re unfit to be a parent.
The moment you see discrimination against people you don’t like and see it as justified. You are nothing but an authoritarian bully no better than the fascists you rail against.
Nobody should be discriminated against for their beliefs, even those you like to strawman as being the embodiment of evil because they’re not like you and put value in tradition.
I agree no child should be placed in a home that would endanger them, but why is this even news? Couple needs to grow a pair and either change their views or just not adopt/foster. Go back to church or golf or whatever. Quit bothering the legal system. Perhaps they could volunteer for an LGBTQ organization and learn why “the T” doesn’t make anyone different or lesser.
At no point did I say anything negative e about gay people. You assumed that with no prompting. I was pointing out your hypocrisy in that your standards only apply to people it’s convenient for you to hate on.
The fat that you immediately assumed that I hate gay people or Muslims tells you all I need to know about you.
BTW, I don’t hate Muslims, I am Muslim. I’m not a delusional western leftist who thinks us Muslims are a bunch of pro-lgbt pro-trans anti-christian etc… pseudo progressive communists like you think we are.
BTW, I don’t hate Muslims, I am Muslim. I’m not a delusional western leftist who thinks us Muslims are a bunch of pro-lgbt pro-trans anti-christian etc… pseudo progressive communists like you think we are.
Tell me more about this “making assumptions” thing. I’m especially interested about everything you seem to know I “think”.
There are even dozens of Christian adoption and fostering agencies that will completely ignore any and all criminal histories if you are godly enough. In fact, being as hypocritical as possible seems to be a selling point for these agencies. If you preach God’s love but have smashed a racists face into the concrete and lost your job over it and then shot your dog in the street while your wife defrauds the public and scams vulnerable people to the point of being sued by the state of Texas then you are exactly who they are looking to foster.
Edit: apologies, my fat fingers bungled it: if you are a racist who smashes black people’s faces into the concrete
I think that until the church does a few strong demonstrations that they are not fiddling with children anymore - like, say, a public commitment to turn all allegations of child abuse over to secular authorities, like Biden just did with the military - that they should not be allowed access to children that they don’t produce themselves.
That’s a much more difficult one to defend, from a legal or ethical or moral stance.
My opinion is that teaching a child religion as the only truth is child abuse, without telling the child that there are also people who believe there are no supernatural phenomena in the universe and explaining their best arguments for their viewpoint. It’s no different than existing in a society of hunters and not teaching the kid to hunt. We win by knowing more, not by being stronger or tougher or purer in dog’s eyes or whatever.
But my opinion is no basis for passing laws and such. When you’re talking about who should take care of orphans, or of kids who have been subject to treatment that the law agrees is abuse, the mere having of bad viewpoints which are nonetheless legal is not sufficient grounds, if you ask me. Many religious people would consider my above opinion to be bad at best and hate speech at worst, for instance, but I think my wife and I would do alright taking care of a kid, if we had the time and resources to give.
But IF the people proposing to take a child into their care are regular attendees of the meetings of an organization that is known to protect pedophiles, that is definitely grounds to turn down that application on very solid legal footing, if you ask me.
Well, I’m already on the record as to my view of what constitutes child abuse; the fact of the matter is that we have to live with a lot of people doing a lot of things that we don’t like to children in a free society in 2023.
What is kinda good from my 50-odd year perspective is that people are not quite so entitled now as they were when I was a kid.
I don’t get why they think this is discriminatory when Massachusetts is mostly Catholic to begin with. Because they have a superiority complex, they are “true Catholics” I suppose? I mean even the papacy, USCCB and other large Catholic regulators have shifted their views on LGBTQ people. While a lot of dioceses still aren’t yet uniamious on marriage equality or performing same-sex marriages within church premises and with church tradition/clergy, I think most now say the queer community at least deserves love, respect, and tolerance. Being trans or nonbinary is tricky, yes, but if you foster a child who considers a transition it’s important to give them spaces to really evaluate the choice. Take them to therapy, support groups, and maybe some medical consultations to evaluate their options. With children especially but people in general shouldn’t transition completely on a lark. Make sure they are confident in their choice. Still, these people couldn’t even have a nuanced approach like that. What a shame.
I suppose I mean it is mostly Catholic as in the church has a large present in Massachusetts (where I live as well). Lots of people here grew up in the church, were baptised in Catholic tradition, did Catholic sacraments like confession, communion, or confirmation as children. Catholic charities play a large part of a lot of the social services here too. This survey is unusual because it doesn’t seem to check off the qualities of religiosity. What are they praying about, what kind of God do they believe in, and how do they behave when they attend services? I’m quite skeptical since the supposedly most religious states are Southern red states, which are often religious in hallow, discriminatory ways. In the northeast culture, people are uncomfortable being seen as highly religious because we also want to seem rational, but that doesn’t make us completely non-practicing. My point is, the judges, lawyers, and/or witnesses this couple will encounter likely also have a familiarity with Catholicism and can just as well find a doctrinal rebuttal to their bigotry in addition to legal ones.
It’s a plant. These people are probably intentionally doing this to get a case before the US Supreme Court who will (they hope) overturn it. I’ll bet they knew this would happen.
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