‘Permanent, Irreversible Harm’: How Trump is Protecting Parents From Losing Kids to Gender Ideology

There are not enough homes for every foster child, yet under the Biden administration, children were put in the system because of their parents’ beliefs about gender, said Assistant Secretary of Health Alex Adams. 

Adams, who oversees the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services, is working to stop Child Protective Services from taking kids away from their families because of the child’s gender identity. 

“When a child is removed from a family, you are inflicting permanent, irreversible harm on both the child as well as the parents,” Adams told The Daily Signal. “That’s not a decision that should be made lightly, and it should be reserved to the most significant cases of abuse or neglect as judged by a court.” 

For instance, Abby Martinez lost custody of her daughter to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services after the girl, Yaeli, started identifying as a boy. Three years later, Yaeli committed suicide. 

President Donald Trump at the State of the Union highlighted Sage Blair, who reportedly became a human trafficking victim after her school hid her transgender identity from her mother.

“One case is too many,” Adams said of family separation cases. 

Adams sent letters to all 50 states telling them that under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, they cannot separate children from their parents due to the child’s gender identity.

“A state child welfare agency should respect the sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions of the family,” Adams said. “No child should enter foster care because of differences in values like that.” 

Adams is also making sure families aren’t prevented from fostering due to gender policies. 

“Too many states have put in place requirements that foster families need to commit to affirming certain pronouns of children in their custody, that foster parents might have to commit to certain medical procedures,” Adams said. “And that’s deterring families of faith from stepping forward, from fostering as well.”

Statistically, families of faith are most likely to foster, Adams said. 

“If every house of worship in the country had just one family who committed to fostering, our ratio of homes to kids would be four to one,” he said. “If we did that, we would have homes waiting on kids, not kids, waiting on homes. So we have to be very deliberate about authentically engaging with the faith-based community.” 

Since Adams’ letters went out, two states have already committed to changing their policies. 

Vermont sent a letter saying that they were looking at their policies and committed to changing them, while Massachusetts enacted an emergency rule. 

“We’re continuing to have dialogue and continue to have a discussion internally with other units within HHS about what the most appropriate next steps would be,” he said. 

If states violate sincerely held religious beliefs, the administration will look at funding and regulation changes, he said.