Texas sues over gender ideology in state foster system

Attorney General Ken Paxton challenged a new rule enacted by President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services that puts new stipulations around federal foster care funding. The new rules require agencies that receive federal funding to guarantee any foster family they place a child with will affirm that child’s self-determined LGBTQ+ identity, the Tuesday complaint alleges. Agencies must offer children who identify as LGBTQ+ placements that are consistent with their gender identity, the lawsuit explained.

What does the law require? Agencies must offer the child a placement “consistent with their gender identity,” and they must also consult with the child to give him or her an opportunity to voice any concerns related to placement. The law also requires agencies to ensure children have services that it characterizes as supportive of their sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, with support for mental and behavioral health needs. Agencies must also enact a process for LGBTQ+ aligning children to report issues with their placements.

Departments must also enact additional training on the LGBTQ+ elements of the new rule, as well as more notification requirements to continue receiving federal funding, according to the rule. The rule applies to children aged 14 and older, as well as children under the age of 18 who were removed from a home due to any conflict about their LGBTQ+ identification. The Biden administration is trying to shoehorn gender identity into the nation’s foster care system laws, the lawsuit alleged. The new law has no statutory basis and will only exacerbate the foster parent shortage, the complaint added. This new rule will have a huge impact on the Texas foster care system and both threaten and impose economic injury on the state, the lawsuit alleged. The law also tramples the state’s sovereignty, since certain procedures to change a minor’s gender characteristics constitute child abuse under state law and could render an individual or family ineligible to foster.

What is Texas’ demand for relief? The state charged that the rule illegally exceeds statutory authority and contradicts the U.S. Constitution. Texas is asking for a permanent injunction on the law’s enforcement.

Dig deeper: Read my report on Texas leading another lawsuit against the Biden administration’s nonresidency program.