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Christian foster families fight back against Massachusetts transgender mandate
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Christian foster parents in Massachusetts are challenging a state policy that requires them to affirm and encourage the medical transition of children in their care who identify as transgender or risk losing their foster care licenses.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 3, names two families — the Jones and the Schrocks — who foster young children and infants.
Both families say they have either lost or are at risk of losing their licenses because of the policy, which requires foster parents to sign agreements to “promote,” “support” and “affirm” a child’s gender identity or expression.
The Christian families argue that complying with the policy would violate their religious beliefs.
Nick and Audrey Jones, foster parents suing Massachusetts over a gender affirming policy. At right, LGTBQ activists rally in support of transgender people on the steps of New York City Hall Oct. 24, 2018. (Alliance Defending Freedom/Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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According to the lawsuit, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families plans to remove the Jones’ 17-month-old foster daughter from their home. The child has lived with them since she was barely 2 months old.
The Schrocks, who have cared for 28 foster children over six years, had their license revoked in June after telling the state they could not comply with the policy.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the religious liberty legal group representing the families, said the two households previously fostered 35 children and were in good standing before the new requirements.
According to the suit, Massachusetts did not previously require foster families to pledge verbal affirmation of a child’s gender identity. That changed between 2023 and 2024, when the state began requiring families to sign agreements to speak and act in certain ways, including affirming a foster child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Two Christian foster families in Massachusetts are at risk of, or have already had their foster care licenses revoked, over a state gender identity policy. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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ADF argues the state is infringing on its clients’ First and 14th Amendment rights and is harming children at a time when Massachusetts is facing a foster parent shortage.
“DCF [Department of Children and Families] is even willing to remove young infants and toddlers with no understanding of ‘gender identity’ from loving homes because of their Christian beliefs, creating more trauma for the most vulnerable members of society,” the lawsuit states.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said Massachusetts was prioritizing ideology over children’s needs.
Under a Massachusetts policy, foster families in the state must commit to affirming and encouraging the gender identity and expression of children in their care, according to a new lawsuit. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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“Massachusetts’ foster care system is in crisis: The commonwealth has more than 1,400 children who are waiting to be placed with a loving family. Yet Massachusetts is putting its ideological agenda ahead of the needs of these suffering kids,” Widmalm-Delphonse said in a press release.
He called the case “particularly egregious” because the state was threatening to remove the child the Jones family is fostering from the “only home she’s ever known.”
The Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Children and Families, named as defendants in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The families are asking the court to block enforcement of the rule, declare it unconstitutional and cover their legal costs.
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Just one day after Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced a new state council tasked with studying the impacts of AI data centers in Maine, a new poll suggests a majority of Mainers oppose their construction.
A new poll from UMass Lowell found that 72% of Mainers are against AI data centers being built in their communities.
That includes 51% who strongly oppose the projects, while only 28% support them.
In April, Mills vetoed a bill that would have paused all large-scale AI data center projects in the state, citing a planned facility in Jay.
Since then, several Maine communities have adopted moratoriums of their own. The latest is Scarborough, which enacted its moratorium earlier this week.
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One in three Massachusetts residents use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, according to Microsoft data.
Generative AI can create words, music, pictures, or videos, based on user prompts. For example, if you type a prompt asking for a fictional story, the AI tool will generate a passage with a setting, characters, and plot.
About 33.4% of working-age residents in Massachusetts use these tools, placing the state 11th in the U.S., according to Q1 2026 data. Hampshire County, home to the Five College Consortium, has the highest AI usage rate, at 45.1%.
Microsoft found that counties with more employment in professional and technical services, corporate management, healthcare, information and media, and finance tend to have higher AI usage. Additionally, counties with larger shares of residents ages 18 to 24 tend to have higher levels of AI usage.
Counties with larger shares of workers in manufacturing, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, and construction tend to have lower AI usage, according to Microsoft.
The figures are based on anonymized Microsoft usage data and adjusted for differences in devices, operating systems, internet access, and population size.
Top Massachusetts counties by generative AI usage
Here are Massachusetts’ 14 counties ranked by generative AI usage in Quarter 1 of 2026, and how they rank nationally, according to Microsoft:
- Hampshire County – 45.1% of residents (#28 nationally)
- Middlesex County – 37.9% of residents (#118 nationally)
- Suffolk County – 35.6% of residents (#191 nationally)
- Norfolk County – 34.3% of residents (#233 nationally)
- Worcester County – 33.5% of residents (#265 nationally)
- Plymouth County – 32.9% of residents (#283 nationally)
- Essex County – 30.8% of residents (#385 nationally)
- Bristol County – 28.2% of residents (#553 nationally)
- Hampden County – 27.1% of residents (#645 nationally)
- Barnstable County – 25.5% of residents (#790 nationally)
- Berkshire County – 24.7% of residents (#878 nationally)
- Nantucket County – 24.1% of residents (#937 nationally)
- Franklin County – 23.8% of residents (#961 nationally)
- Dukes County – 15.4% of residents (#2,450 nationally)
Top states by generative AI usage
Here are the 50 states ranked by generative AI usage in Quarter 1 of 2026, according to Microsoft:
- Maryland (24 counties) – 36.3% of residents
- Utah (29 counties) – 35.7% of residents
- Texas (254 counties) – 35.3% of residents
- Virginia (133 counties) – 34.7% of residents
- New Jersey (21 counties) – 34.5% of residents
- Nevada (17 counties) – 34.2% of residents
- California (58 counties) – 34.0% of residents
- Connecticut (9 counties) – 34.0% of residents
- Georgia (159 counties) – 33.7% of residents
- Florida (67 counties) – 33.6% of residents
- Massachusetts (14 counties) – 33.4% of residents
- Illinois (102 counties) – 33.3% of residents
- New York (62 counties) – 32.7% of residents
- Rhode Island (5 counties) – 32.5% of residents
- Colorado (64 counties) – 32.3% of residents
- Washington (39 counties) – 32.2% of residents
- Arizona (15 counties) – 31.4% of residents
- Hawaii (5 counties) – 30.6% of residents
- Delaware (3 counties) – 30.6% of residents
- New Hampshire (10 counties) – 30.2% of residents
- North Carolina (100 counties) – 30.1% of residents
- South Carolina (46 counties) – 29.1% of residents
- Oklahoma (77 counties) – 28.9% of residents
- Idaho (44 counties) – 28.8% of residents
- Kansas (105 counties) – 28.6% of residents
- Tennessee (95 counties) – 28.5% of residents
- Oregon (36 counties) – 28.4% of residents
- Ohio (88 counties) – 28.3% of residents
- Wisconsin (72 counties) – 28.2% of residents
- North Dakota (53 counties) – 28.2% of residents
- Michigan (83 counties) – 27.4% of residents
- South Dakota (66 counties) – 27.4% of residents
- Alabama (67 counties) – 27.3% of residents
- Pennsylvania (67 counties) – 27.2% of residents
- Indiana (92 counties) – 26.8% of residents
- Missouri (114 counties, 1 independent city) – 26.8% of residents
- Nebraska (93 counties) – 26.4% of residents
- Minnesota (87 counties) – 26.3% of residents
- Louisiana (64 parishes) – 26.1% of residents
- Arkansas (75 counties) – 26.0% of residents
- Wyoming (23 counties) – 25.5% of residents
- Kentucky (120 counties) – 25.1% of residents
- Iowa (99 counties) – 24.4% of residents
- New Mexico (33 counties) – 23.9% of residents
- Alaska (19 organized boroughs, 1 unorganized borough) – 23.6% of residents
- Vermont (14 counties) – 23.3% of residents
- Mississippi (82 counties) – 22.9% of residents
- Montana (56 counties) – 22.7% of residents
- Maine (16 counties) – 21.4% of residents
- West Virginia (55 counties) – 20.8% of residents
Clare Mulroy of USA TODAY contributed to this report.
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