The LGBT-friendly rule, announced last fall by the Biden administration, plans to force U.S. states to label foster care providers according to their willingness to support the sexual identity, and gender identity, of the children in their care.
The guardians would be designated “safe” or “unsafe,” according to the new rules rolled out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The new rule protects youths in foster care “from any mistreatment, abuse or hostility just because of who they are,” an administration official told CNN last year.
Talking about the HHS rule on American Family Radio, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the rule clashes with faith-based foster care providers and with families who hold biblical views.
“Not only are we going to pull significant resources out of a foster care system that desperately needs it,” he warned, “we're also not going to allow kids to be exposed to a family home that's loving and has an appropriate environment for their wellbeing."
Marshall made his comments this week on the "At the Core" radio program.
It is unclear where the rule currently stands after a 60-day comment period began last September, but it's unlikely the Biden administration will backtrack for fear of backlash from homosexual activists.
Human Rights Campaign, the homosexual lobbying group, called the new rule an "important step" for LGBT youth in a statement it published last fall.
A recent story by The Hill, published in January, said some Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are publicly pushing back on the HHS. Rep. Jim Banks has introduced a measure called the Sensible Adoption for Every Home Act, the story said.
'Plus' means many made-up genders
The biased CNN story, which applauded the HHS rule, identified those youths as “LGBTQ+,” an acronym that stands for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, questioning, and “plus.”
According to LGBT websites, the “plus” in that long acronym refers to a person who does not identify as male or female, or who chooses a made-up gender such as pansexual, asexual, or omnisexual.
Under the HHS rule, therefore, a family that wants to welcome a foster child would be punished if they refuse to recognize the child is a pansexual.
Last fall, after the HHS announcement, Marshall led a coalition of 19 U.S. states in opposing the proposed rule. The other states fighting the rule are Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In a statement about that pushback, Attorney General Marshall pointed out Christian families represent an overwhelming number of foster homes and adoption homes in Alabama.
"Joe Biden continues to harass our State and others like it by implicitly threatening to withhold federal funding for children in need if we do not conform to his ideology, but our values are not for sale," Marshall vowed.
