Massachusetts vs. Christians on transgenderism: When religious discrimination becomes state establishment of religion
Timothy P. Carney
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Kitty and Matthew Burke, a Catholic couple facing fertility struggles, wanted to become foster parents, and they eventually wanted to adopt. Too bad for them, they live in Massachusetts and are observant Catholics.
The state rejected their application to become foster parents on the basis that they “would not be affirming to a child who identified as LGBTQIA.” The Burkes are suing Massachusetts in a case that alleges clear religious discrimination.
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But the case, being argued on the Burkes’ behalf by Alliance Defending Freedom, and the state’s regulations on adoption point toward something more devious: Massachusetts is establishing a state religion, with its own faith-based dogma and spirituality, and ruling nonadherents to be second-class citizens.
Massachusetts regulations dictate that all foster and adoptive parents must abide by the teachings of gender ideology, specifically the notion that children have an interior gender that is undetermined by their biological sex — and that children have the right to change their gender.
The Code of Massachusetts Regulations reads thus: “A foster/pre-adoptive parent applicant must demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Department the ability … to promote the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of a child placed in his or her care, including supporting and respecting a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
As the Burkes say in their complaint, this is “an absolute bar for Catholics who agree with the Church’s teaching on sex, marriage, and gender.”
When Washington state enforced similar regulations against a Seventh-day Adventist couple, a federal court blocked their enforcement, explaining that it was religious discrimination: “If the only factor weighing against an otherwise qualified applicant has to do with their sincerely held religious beliefs, the Department must not discriminate against a foster care applicant based on their creed.”
But calling these regulations religious discrimination doesn’t quite go far enough. Massachusetts and Washington didn’t merely create rules that discriminate against Catholics and Seventh-day Adventists. They discriminate against Muslims and Pentecostals too.
These state regulations also discriminate against secular, irreligious couples who do not believe that a boy who declares himself really a girl is actually a girl.
Lots of people, including the governing class of Massachusetts, believe that a boy who declares himself really a girl may in fact be a girl who was just “assigned the wrong gender at birth.”
This belief only became elite dogma in the last few years. It is also a belief not at all required by logic or science. Its premise is that we all have inner genders with no biological markers, which is ultimately a spiritual belief. It is believed on faith alone.
If you do not share this faith-based spirituality, Massachusetts believes you are not fit to adopt or foster children. Thus Massachusetts has once again established a state religion — one that happens to be harmful to children.