According to a Fox News report, over 1,400 children in the Massachusetts foster care system are waiting to be placed with families.
Lydia and Heath Marvin of Boston have opened their home to children in need. But a new requirement by the state has closed their door. Massachusetts requires all licensed foster families — including religious families — to affirm a child’s “gender identity.”
The Christian couple refused to sign a contract to affirm what they consider unbiblical…and harmful to children. Fox News reported that the couple’s foster care license has been revoked.
Lydia Marvin said that they were a “fit” family to care for children in need for four-and-a-half years. But because they won’t sign the contract with “transgender” language in it, they’re no longer fit.
Lydia added that signing the contract would require them to set aside their beliefs and values. They do not want to endorse the state’s position.
Heath Marvin said the couple asked for a reasonable accommodation. They have appealed the revocation.
Other Christian couples have filed lawsuits against the government over similar “affirming” requirements. Governments also tried to stop Christian foster care agencies. For example, a federal court ruled in 2023 that South Carolina can continue partnerships with Christian foster care agencies that don’t place children with homosexuals after the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued.
The nation’s highest court has already spoken on this issue. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Fulton v. Philadelphia (2021). The city ended a 50-year contract because CSS declined to certify homosexuals as foster parents.
Watch the Fox News segment below for more about the Marvins’s fight.
UNREAL: Lydia and Heath Marvin, a Christian couple who foster children, had their license REVOKED by the State of Massachusetts after they refused to sign a contract requiring them to “affirm a child’s gender identity.” pic.twitter.com/T6gGR5wSaU
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 3, 2025
