“Saying that we would love and care for any child was not enough,” Jenn DeGross said. “They were asking us then to be very specific: ‘Will you use their preferred pronouns? Will you take them to Pride parades? Will you take them to [gender-affirming] medical appointments?’ Things that, as Christians, we could not be supportive of or affirm.”

The DeGrosses refused, and the state declined to renew their license — raising questions about the religious freedom of foster parents, the role of Washington state in protecting youth in care, and how best to manage the shortage of qualified foster parents.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy organization, sued on the DeGrosses’ behalf, saying the new license requirement violated their constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of their religion. The organization has brought similar lawsuits in Massachusetts and Vermont.

Washington state chose to settle and agreed to remove the requirement that people who want to be foster parents support children’s gender identity and sexuality.

Thousands of children are in foster care in Washington state. They enter the system after a state department verifies reports of abuse, neglect, or abandonment. If they don’t have family members who can care for them, they’re often placed with a licensed foster caregiver.

No one tracks how many of Washington’s foster children identify as LGBTQ+, but about a quarter of young adults under 30 do, and children in foster care are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than the population as a whole.