Maryland Child Protective Services Treated Christian Beliefs as Evidence of Parental Unfitness, Black Baptist Parents Allege

Black Baptist parents in Maryland are suing local and state agencies after losing custody of their son in a transgender dispute. They say their son eventually attempted suicide while in foster care.

The parents, listed in the lawsuit as Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, sued the state’s Department of Human Services, Prince George’s County Department of Social Services, a social worker, the foster mother, and other officials earlier this month. They claim that officials treated their Christian faith as evidence of parental unfitness because they did not support LGBTQ identities.

“The Does’ faith and religious liberty brought the weight of their own government against them,” Amos Jones, the parents’ attorney, told the Daily Signal in a statement Monday. “We are calling on Governor Wes Moore and County Executive Aisha Braveboy to correct this affront to Christian families in a county full of traditionalist black megachurches.”

The son, who was diagnosed with autism, had engaged in self-cutting, and the parents took him to Children’s National Hospital, Jones told the Daily Signal. The staff there began referring to the son by a female name and referred him to Prince George’s County Child Protective Services.

According to the lawsuit, authorities removed the son from his parents’ custody and placed him with a foster mother. After some time with the foster mother, the son attempted suicide, and ended up in the hospital. The parents also claim their son had been carried across state lines without their knowledge.

Jones said Child Protective Services ultimately found the parents fit and did not substantiate abuse allegations against them. “Nevertheless, their child got snatched and wound up living across state lines, gone ever since then, because the system decreed that his ‘best interests’ were not with his own parents.”

The parents filed a complaint with Child Protective Services in August 2022 after learning about the suicide attempt. According to the lawsuit, the Department of Human Services repeatedly failed to address their concerns. Ultimately, the parents filed a complaint with the State Treasurer, seeking compensation for state harms under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, but the treasurer denied their request.

In October 2024, the parents learned that Prince George’s County child-welfare programs participated in the AFFIRM project, an LGBTQ youth program connected to a $10 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The lawsuit alleges that government officials treated the parents’ Christian beliefs regarding sex and gender as evidence of danger and “reflected a governmental program or practice that treated non-affirming Christian parents as unsafe or harmful.”

It claims that the federal grant and the AFFIRM program “expand the case beyond isolated negligence and support theories of unconstitutional policy, … religious discrimination, compelled speech, viewpoint discrimination,” and more.

The Daily Signal reached out to the Maryland Department of Human Services and the Prince George’s County Department of Social Services for comment and did not receive a response by publication time. Children’s National Hospital did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

“These parents have tried conciliation, but the state has only said, ‘no,'” Jones, the attorney, told the Daily Signal. “So now we have had to resort to federal court to make them do right.”

Jones argued that the lawsuit carries special significance because it involves a black Baptist family in Prince George’s County.

“Though these official transgressions are affecting families of all races and traditionalist religions, it is not lost on us the irony here: Prince George’s County is filled with African-American traditionalist megachurches, and here is an African-American Baptist family of fervent believers, beat down by county and state governments who ‘look like’ them, who have left them no other choice but to file a federal lawsuit,” he said. “We believe that the officials are way out of step with P.G. County values—and the jury in that community will decide.”

The Christian parents allege violations of their First Amendment rights, their right to familial integrity, and the infliction of emotional distress. They are seeking damages of at least $4.4 million and an order preventing the defendants from continuing to discriminate against them.

They claim the defendants violated their First Amendment rights “by treating plaintiffs’ religiously informed parenting as evidence of danger, excluding plaintiffs from the parent-child relationship, and favoring substitute custodial arrangements aligned with defendants’ preferred viewpoint.”

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