A Vermont couple’s fostering license is being restored after their opposition to the practice of sexually transitioning children made them a target.
The married couple was identified as Melinda Antonucci and Casey Mathieu, who said the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) forced them to participate in LGBTQ training when they applied for the license, Fox News reported Friday.
During that process, DCF discussed medical procedures for children transitioning to the opposite sex. In her statement to the outlet, Antonucci said they became foster parents because they wanted to help children in need.
“The state tried to disqualify us because of our protected beliefs and because we wouldn’t say what the government wanted us to say,” adding that the recent settlement meant “our family can continue serving foster youth, and it helps ensure other foster parents won’t be punished for speaking honestly or living out their faith.”
In an announcement Friday, the Center for American Liberty (CAL) said it reached the settlement with DCF, calling it a “landmark federal civil-rights case challenging Vermont’s attempt to impose ideological conditions on foster care licensing.”
The settlement requires the state to “adopt and implement statewide practice guidance governing licensing conversations involving LGBTQ issues and minors.”
In March 2024, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a bill to block the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from implementing a rule that could keep parents who were against gender ideology from being able to foster children, Breitbart News reported.
Not long after the article was published, the outlet highlighted the fact that a report commissioned by French senators said the practice of “transitioning” children would be remembered as one of the “greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine.”
“Conversely, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have all begun to restrict the use of puberty blockers given their side effects and often life-long impacts, which the report said indicated that the world is at a ‘turning point’ on transgenderism,” the Breitbart News article read.
It is important to note that former President Joe Biden’s (D) administration pushed the leftist transgender agenda on children and also scolded parents who opposed the agenda, per Breitbart News.
In regard to the Vermont case, CAL lead attorney Josh Dixon said the state “tried to turn foster licensing into an ideological screening process — conditioning the ability to serve vulnerable children on compelled speech and mandatory adherence to the government’s preferred views. This settlement is a major win for constitutional rights and for kids who need safe, loving homes. Vermont is restoring our clients’ license and adopting statewide guidance that puts the focus back where it belongs: on real-world caregiving and child safety — not political orthodoxy.”
